A Garota Francesa

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.

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.

Ok so Zach is a klutz and apparently the most insensitive sensitive guy you could imagine. Zach is an English teacher so not a moron and yet is made to be ludicrously stupid to manufacture the moment/s of crisis. Nobody could be that dumb. When he does stand up and say things that he shouldn't say it's not to the complete jerks to whom a few harsh words are owed, it's to his partner. Ok, you might say that's his character but as a viewer it's disappointing and really annoying.

It has its funny moments but if Zach had just been . . . Intelligent it would have been so much better and it might have been believable that the girl actually wanted him. I sure didn't.

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.

I'm a French Canadian from Quebec City and I enjoyed this movie even if it was full of cliches from my own City. It's obviously full of stereotypes but still enjoyable. Sometimes you just have to sit back, relax and enjoy without judgment! If you are ready to do that, just go and watch it. I'm pretty sure you'll have a good time. And, if it makes you want to come to our beautiful Quebec City, please do. It's beautiful and indeed, Le Château Frontenac is a sight to behold 😀! And apparently, it's haunted! You can get two ghosts for the price of one! And if it's true, " Who you going to call?" 😜 Ghostbusters! 👻!