The story follows an irresponsible middle-aged man who unexpectedly faces fatherhood on two fronts: his girlfriend is pregnant, and dozens of adult children born as a result of his youthful sperm donations have filed a lawsuit to have his identity revealed.

Twenty-three years later, in 2011, he is a hapless deliveryman for his family's butcher shop, attempting to grow cannabis in his apartment to pay an $80,000 debt to dangerous thugs.

It is revealed that he sent his family on a vacation to Venice when his mother was terminally ill, which was secretly funded by his sperm donation fees.

David decides to identify himself, but when the thugs assault his father he agrees with his lawyer to sue the sperm bank for damages.

Donor children: The film was co-written by Ken Scott and Martin Petit, former members of comedy troupe Les Bizarroïdes.

[12] Petit had the initial idea to tell the story of an irresponsible middle-aged man who had made numerous sperm donations for money and was the donor father to hundreds of grown children.

However, during development, they learned of a man who had 500 donor children by artificial insemination,[c] and increased their number to bring the script in line with reality.

[6][16] Fathers of young children, Scott and Petit saw the absurd premise as a way to explore issues of modern fatherhood and "to look at every possible aspect of paternity.

[17] The donor children were initially written as stereotypes – the handicapped, the actor, the drug user – and were not fleshed out with names and details until later in the process.

[25] Pierre Gill served as director of photography with production design by Danielle Labrie and music by David Lafleche.

[31] There are the talented ones (e.g.: the sports star and the actor), the cool ones (the lifeguard and the busker), and the worrying ones (the drug user, the promiscuous homosexual and the goth).

[34] Sociologist Margaret Nelson found that, like other popular North American films involving assisted reproductive technologies,[d] Starbuck reinforces the nuclear family.

However, Nelson found that the conclusion places David's heart with Valérie and their new son, while the donor children are reduced to a battalion of babysitters.

[35][36][37] The film had its world premiere on 21 June 2011 at the National Arts Centre in Ottawa, hosted by Heritage Minister James Moore.

On French cinema website AlloCiné, the film ranked as users' second-favourite movie of the summer, behind The Dark Knight Rises.

[46] Following appearances on the film festival circuit, Starbuck had a limited US release in New York City and Los Angeles on 22 March 2013.

[59] McGinn and National Post chief film critic Chris Knight agreed that the expressive writing was so genuine as to lend credulity to the more outlandish scenes.

"[51] However, Charlotte O'Sullivan of the London Evening Standard wrote that it lacked momentum and a cohesive tone[61] and Radheyan Simonpillai of Now found the film to be devoid of substance, logic or realism, with an uninspired resolution.

[41] John Anderson of Variety and Matthew Taylor of Sight and Sound felt that the film suffered from moments of excessively sentimentality.

[67] Stephen Cole of the Globe and Mail wrote that the film succeeded on the performance of the comedian "who can flip, flop and fly off a diving board while maintaining his sex appeal.

"[69] Steven Boone of RogerEbert.com recommended the film based on Huard's performance, writing that his "warmth and passionate concern ... sell this movie's humanist spirit".

[8] Some of the movie's promotional material referenced the works of filmmaker Judd Apatow,[23] a comparison which was validated by critics Boone[70] and Milleliri.

[28] Demers and Kelly compared the writing to Scott's previous screenplay for Seducing Doctor Lewis, which also blended comedy and drama.

[57] Taylor compared David's "guardian angel" mission to the premise of My Name is Earl, in which the title character tries to redeem himself by performing good deeds for those he previously wronged.

[90][91] In particular, when there are large groups of donor children with the same biological father in a community, there is risk of overrepresented genetic diseases and of accidental incest.

[c] At the time, there were no legal prohibitions in North America limiting the number of children conceived through artificial insemination from a single man.

[92] In September 2012, the publisher's lawyer filed for copyright infringement in the French high court, claiming 3 million Euros.

[95] A Hollywood remake by DreamWorks Pictures, Delivery Man, unusually retained Scott as writer and director and Rouleau as producer.

It consists of 400 plastic babies with price tags, each encased in resin to resemble ice cubes, arranged in a grid.