Alliance Films has pulled out almost all the stops for Paul Gross’ World War I epic Passchendaele, which arrives Friday on 190 screens, bolstered by an extensive marketing campaign.

‘It’s among the largest P&A budgets for a Canadian film ever for Alliance,’ says SVP of marketing and publicity Mark Slone, though it’s not the widest of its recent Canadian releases. The English-Canadian release of Trailer Park Boys The Movie arrived in 2006 with a 200-screen splash.

The $20-million war story, the most expensive movie ever to be financed entirely in Canada, is looking to connect with popcorn crowds with its mix of romance and trench warfare, though critics have responded with both praise and scorn. Canadian Press calls it ‘impressive’ but ‘undermined by heavy-handed religious imagery and an overly sentimental love story,’ while Toronto’s NOW magazine says it is ‘a timely film that questions why we go to war.’

Passchendaele premiered at the opening of the Toronto International Film Festival, and has since been promoted with trailers before buzzed-about films such as Burn After Reading, and during TV shows including Big Brother and Prison Break. The film has also been promoted on websites including MSN/Sympatico and canoe.ca.

It arrives in theaters on the heels of another Rhombus Media project, the high-minded Blindness, which has performed well in Canada ($419,000 on 98 screens in its opening week) but disappointingly in the U.S. (US$2.6 million in North America in its opening week after having opened on nearly 1,700 screens.) Passchendaele is also produced by Gross’ Whizbang Films and Damberger Film and Cattle Company.

Originally slated for release around Remembrance Day — which this year marks 90 years since the end of the First World War — the film was moved up to October to avoid stiff competition from titles including the latest Bond installment Quantum of Solace and the Baz Luhrmann epic Australia.

Passchendaele stars Paul Gross, who also wrote and directed, as a wounded soldier who falls in love with a nurse (Caroline Dhavernas) before he heads to Belgium for the titular 1917 battle. The film was recently screened for the Governor General Michaëlle Jean and for Canadian troops stationed in Kandahar.

It is up against other wide releases including Maple Pictures’ W., about the life and presidency of George W. Bush, which opens on 152 screens in Canada, and nearly 2,000 screens in the U.S. through Lionsgate.

The comedy Sex Drive, starring B.C. native Amanda Crew — recently named one of Playback‘s ‘Next 25’ rising stars — bows on 175 screens via Seville Pictures, while it gets a 2,400-screen release in the U.S. through Summit Entertainment.

The busy week will also see the release of Stuart Townsend’s Vancouver-shot Battle in Seattle, playing in cities including Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver and Quebec City. (The film involves B.C.’s Insight Film Studios). Meanwhile, Mongrel Media bows the environmentally minded doc Flow at Toronto’s Royal Theatre.

Among other U.S. releases is the Toronto-shot actioner Max Payne, from 20th Century Fox, and the ensemble drama The Secret Life of Bees, through its specialty division Fox Searchlight Pictures.

With files from Mark Dillon