French Girl

'' French Girl '' is a romantic comedy about a man who follows his French Canadian girlfriend back to Canada, where he meets her parents and her ex who tries to get between them.

Surprisingly, the movie is not that bad. It has some funny moments, it is romantic enough to be believable, and it has an interesting concept. Yes, it is not original, as plenty rom coms were founded on the basis of meeting the parents or even having a cultural shock when they do due to their cultural differences. And yet, this one manages to be subbtle and funny.

On the other hand, there were some rushed moments and the ending was just okay.

For the English original version, Canadian French characters keep their own voices and speak Québécois - the dialect of French speaking people in Québec and a large part of French Canadian outside Québec. Nice.

Ridiculously, for the French version, there are no Canadian translation, only a translation from France. Then Québécois characters are dubbed in Paris French - which they proudly named True French - instead of keeping the Canadian French voices. So if you are a Québécois and you don't want to feel that the New York guy is visiting Paris, listen to the original soundtrack and put French subtitles to understand the English characters.

The term French girl describes a woman originating from France. This story is of a French-Canadian girl, not a French girl. French is also a language, naturally evolved as a dialect does, from the original language from France.

QUOTE from CBC entertainment review:

The premise is simple: Gordon wants to propose to Sophie, but she gets a job offer from her ex-girlfriend Ruby (played by the stunning Vanessa Hudgens) back in Quebec City before he can seal the deal.

That means meeting Sophie's very Québécois family on their farm, while an increasingly unhinged Ruby tries to sabotage their relationship and win Sophie back.

This is the first feature for director pair James A. Woods and Nicolas Wright, who also wrote the script.

It's a personal project: Both their fathers fell in love with their French Canadian mothers and moved to Quebec to start families.

Despite being first-time feature directors, the film is incredibly sharp, both in its comedy and its editing.

It hits its beats hard, and there are plenty of very funny moments.

The movie is part culture clash, part ensemble comedy, and owes a lot to Braff's experienced hand in rom-coms. As Gordon, he conjures an early Billy Crystal in his comedic timing and a bit of the bashfulness of a mid-career Grant - high praise in the rom-com world.

I was looking forward to this film as I love Quebed City and Quebec in general. I have ancestors from Beauport. But I wanted to stop watching 10 minutes into it. Why would a beautiful, talented, accomplished young woman be at all interested in a neurotic, weak, candyass loser like Gordon? It's just too preposterous to suspend one's disbelief in order to enjoy at least the scenery in the film. The storyline displalys one cliche after another. I don't understand how scripts like this get made. No, wait, I do: because Hollywood producers are all neurotic, weak candyasses who were able to move on from their careers in car sales or the clothing business or corporate law through nepotism or fraternity connections.

I found the first 20 or so minutes difficult to get through. First there is the drug that Gordon's dad gave him to calm him down for the flight and it made him act like a total jackass on the plane and in the airport terminal. Then there was the gathering of French Canadian family, all talking too loud and over each other at the table during a meal. All more annoying than entertaining. I thought to myself, "If this is how the whole movie is then I am going to abandon it."

Thankfully it eventually redeemed itself, things settled down and a pretty interesting story developed for the rest of the way.

Zach Braff is New York school teacher, Gordon Kinski. He is pretty much a dull, ordinary guy. His girlfriend is French Canadian actress Evelyne Brochu as Sophie-Jeanne Tremblay. She is a successful chef that soon gets extra notice. A person from her past contacts her, they are holding a contest of sorts and want her to compete for the job of Executive Chef at a new high-end restaurant in Quebec. That is the spark for the trip back home where her family runs a farm that produces superior lambs.

The person from the past is Vanessa Hudgens as Ruby Collins, a somewhat famous chef with a TV show and she is holding the competition for the new chef. Greatly complicating matters is she and Evelyne had more than just a professional relationship back in the day and Gordon does not know about it, as he is preparing to ask her to marry him.

My wife and I watched it at home, streaming on Amazon Prime. The streaming version includes English subtitles when French is spoken. In spite of its very rough beginning it turned out to be a better movie than my wife and I expected it to be. Its IMDb rating seems just a bit low.