Quartile rating: 6.5/10 · 1 rating
Although living a comfortable life in Salon-de-Provence, a charming town in the South of France, Julie has been feeling depressed for a while. To please her, Philippe Abrams, a post office administrator, her husband, tries to obtain a transfer to a seaside town, on the French Riviera, at any cost. The trouble is that he is caught red-handed while trying to scam an inspector. Philippe is immediately banished to the distant unheard of town of Bergues, in the Far North of France...
Welcome to the Sticks is a charming French comedy that plays on regional stereotypes and cultural prejudices between northern and southern France. The plot is straightforward fish-out-of-water fare, competently executed with genuine warmth and humor but not especially deep. The acting is solid and likable, with Kad Merad carrying much of the comic load effectively. Cinematography is functional and unambitious — it captures the grey northern landscapes adequately but without particular artistry. Novelty gets a modest bump for its distinctly French cultural specificity, the Ch'ti dialect humor, and its genuine affection for the northern community it portrays, which gave it enormous domestic resonance and a singular identity even if the formula itself is familiar. The ending is satisfying in a conventional crowd-pleasing way, wrapping things up warmly without surprise.