Welcome to the Sticks - Movie Review

I used to date a woman, an attractive, successful woman, who had the attention span of a gnat. Conversations would be cruising right along and in the blink of a goldfish's eye, her focus would be on something else, be it a stunning sunset, a sideshow freak or a shiny new nickel on the ground. The conversation, having thus hit a snag, would come back on line when she, having lost track of her place in it, would inevitably utter "Wait, what?"

Today I begin a new aspect to this blog, one I hope to continue weekly with few snags, distractions and bumps along the way. This is the first of what I hope to be a weekly movie review. It's a relatively simple conceit - watch a movie, scatter some semi-coherent thoughts about the way it told its story and how successful I felt it was, and share.

Simple, no? Seemingly so, though I make no promises to the types of movies I will write about, what aspect of the film I might choose to dissect and whether it is even an actual review of the movie or more my personal reaction to it. My taste, similar to yours and the rest of the movie-going public's, is wildly diverse.

So what I'll do is start with a film that likely no one reading here has seen, but which most of you will in a year or two.

Wait, what?

I'll explain later.

This first film on the queue is the largest-grossing box office film in French history, a 2008 comedy called "Bienvenue chez les Ch'tis" (Welcome to the Sticks).

The whoosh you just felt was the vaccum of users hitting the "Back" button and moving on to a non-French-film-reviewing blog. For both of you who have stuck around though, here's the basic plot:

A middle-aged postal supervisor fakes a handicap in order to land a plush transfer to the French Riviera but it backfires and he is instead sent to the dreaded North of France, a province home to a presumed backwater people who speak in an almost unintelligible "Schticks" dialect.

A simple premise, really, and one that must be deftly handled by both director and actors in order to make the characters both human and comic while avoiding stock situations and thinly drawn stereotypes. While at first it appears to be headed for a film that makes the simple folk of the North seem foolish, soon enough we see that those same provincial attitudes of superiority are ripe for satirizing the Southerners and everyone in France is the true butt of the jokes for holding such notions of the other group, regardless of which character you best relate. While our hero initially lags into a depression for his unfortunate circumstance and falls victim to comic miscommunications with the locals in his new locale, his rocky relationship with his wife back home strengthens as she marvels at his ability to withstand the rigors of living in such a place, with such people. But what she doesn't realize, is that once her husband acclimates to his surroundings (and goes on a couple benders with his co-workers) he finds that the North is not such a bad place after all. He continues his charade with the help of his new friends, building to a climax when his wife decides she must move north and support his efforts. His attempts to hold onto his marriage, his job and learn a little about human nature are all tested as he figures out how he must come clean.

The central figure of the postal supervisor is obviously the key and, this being a French film, is played by an unassuming, middle aged man (think the French Larry David) who comes across perfectly as the put-upon everyman who only wants to do right by his family. It hits the mark in its slight, subtle humor mixed with some standard language-barrier jokes and a couple excellent moments of over-the-top and physical comedy. It doesn't try to overreach or get overly sentimental in its approach and while it occasionally asks the viewer to accept some scenarios that might seem questionable, it does so gently and moves on, never requiring a prolonged suspension of disbelief.

As for why I feel that eventually everyone will see this film, it is because the American rights have been bought by Will Smith and his production company, presumably so that it can be a vehicle for him. The fish-out-of-water premise and the themes of small town/big city, regional pride and acceptance of strange cultures are easily translatable to a wide American audience. Think "My Cousin Vinny" which explored all of them in the context of a comedic courthouse film, using the New York/Alabama juxtaposition. It will be interesting to consider the two regions (states, even?) that Smith might choose to set the film in here in the states. Any thoughts on what would be the best two? Alaska might have to be involved.

Trailer...