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Welcome to the Land of Ch’tis review
:. Director: Dany Boon
:. Starring: Kad Merad, Dany Boon
:. Running Time: 1:46
:. Year: 2008
:. Country: France
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While the entertaining Welcome to the Land of Ch'tis is the biggest box office hit in France's history, it's unfortunately difficult to envision parallel success here. Or even in Quebec for that matter.
Moving to unfamiliar territory filled with prejudice is a staple of comedy fodder. Living the good life in Salon-de-Provence as a postmaster quickly comes to an end for Philippe Abrams (Kad Merad) when he is banished to the bleak, barren tundra of the North as punishment for trying to finagle his way into an even better position on the coast. His long-depressed wife Julie (Zoe Felix) stays behind with their son while he leaves for the Land of Ch'tis bundled up like a polar bear. Moving north in France is the equivalent to ending up on U.S. Redneck territory but with arctic weather: the people are backward, their food is weird, not much in the way of culture, and boy do they love their booze and guns.
His arrival to the town of Bergues means trying to understand their unintelligible dialect (lots of "sh" sounds substituting "s"), eating their stinky food and in general trying to make sense of his surroundings. Not surprisingly, after a few mishaps he finds his employees at the post office are a fun group doing their best to make him feel welcome, especially Antoine (Dany Boon), a lovable alcoholic yearning for the flirty coworker he dumped fearing his mother's disapproval. Soon enough, Philippe finds he's enjoying himself and realizing that almost all of his prejudices were unfounded. The problem is his wife-the more he speaks of his misery the happier she seems to be. So he continues the lie until she comes to visit.
Hands down, apart from a drunken bicycle ride, the best scene of the movie is the welcome the town's population stages for his wife. Scramble together redneck clichés and images of post-WWII France along with impeccable comic timing and voilà — hilarity ensues. The problem is that it's unsustainable given the plot turns. From genuine laughter comes dismay at the hands of a manipulative romantic comedy a l'américain. Philippe realizes his error in lying to his wife and scampers off after her. You know the rest and it's unfortunate that French films of late have lost their bite. Though it may be too regionalized to be a success here, the equivalent would be City Slickers 3: Woody Allen in Alabama.
Fred Thom
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French Films: 1998 - 2011 Reviews
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