It’s Jerry Lewis All Over Again | The French found Kad Merad and Dany Boon hilarious in Welcome to the Sticks; our Canadian reviewer, not so much.
WELCOME TO THE STICKS
Directed by Dany Boon. Starring Kad Merad, Dany Boon, Anne Marivin, Zoé Félix. Opens Fri, Apr 10.
**1/2
How do you say “Don’t take my word for it” in French? I ask only because as much as Welcome to the Sticks didn’t particularly amuse me, I’ve never been to France. Considering that the film’s goal is to dispel the notion that the country’s northern region is inhabitable through a series of goofy local stereotypes and references, it would best be viewed by someone who could recognize if that humour works or not.
However, even with my limited French, I notice that what is most notably, ahem, lost in translation is the title itself; Welcome to the Sticks stands in for Bienvenue Chez les Ch’tis. In North America we often think of “the sticks” as referring to a sparsely populated wooded area, whereas the French use “Ch’tis” to describe the supposedly peculiar residents of northern France. This discrepancy sums up the contextual problem of Welcome to the Sticks: it simply wasn’t made for us anglophones.
The plot has the basic structure of an extended sitcom episode; Philippe Abrams (Kad Merad) applies for a job transfer to the beautiful South of France, but is rejected after getting caught pretending to be handicapped in hopes of increasing his chances. He is then ordered to spend two years as the manager of a post office in the northern town of Bergues, a punishment that is repeatedly referred to as a prison sentence worse than being fired. Abrams very reluctantly accepts, leaving his wife and son behind, and arrives expecting the worst. The rest of the movie proceeds more or less as follows: Abrams gets a bad first impression of Bergues, then starts to like it, and eventually learns to love it. The North really isn’t as bad as everyone thinks, you see, it’s simply amusingly misunderstood.
Welcome to the Sticks is one of those charming comedies that parents love because all of the jokes are “so true” and the story is “so sweet,” except here, it’s only francophone parents who understand the humour. The fact that it is France’s top-grossing film of all time suggests to me that it is their version of Meet the Fockers — considering that most of the jokes consist of exploiting the accents and eccentricities of the Bergues locals, that comparison seems fitting.
I must acknowledge the possibility that I’m not giving the film enough credit: the actors are quite capable and the production values are high. It’s just impossible to tell if this movie is as groundbreaking as its ticket sales suggest. Consider the director, Dany Boon, who also co-writes and stars as a hapless local; maybe his insights into France’s culture are so cutting that he’s a comedy genius on par with our Woody Allen. Or perhaps he’s transforming the genre à la Judd Apatow. Then again, there’s always the chance that he is overtaking the box office in the same inexplicable way Tyler Perry does.
We Canadians may never know. C’est la vie.
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