Welcome to the Sticks (2008)

the audience applauded

When a movie has you begging for it to end not even half way through it's pure crap. We've all seen this movie and this characters millions of times, nothing new in it. Don't waste your time.

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

A clunky actioner with a handful of cool moments.

Warning : spoilerFact : this film has puzzled the critics, the international audience as well as the intellectual Parisian establishment with its phenomenal success (I mean, with the French public)...Why, but oh why, has this unpretentious, rather funny comedy, OK, been such a blockbuster?Mystery revealed : The French, who are sourpusses, egoistical, cold hearted, hypocritical people (I am one!), KNOW, all of them, that a gem of a people lives way, way up in the gloomy, rainy, barren north of the country : the Ch'tis. Up there, dire life conditions and the common destiny of working generation after generation in the coal mines (now closed) and textile mills (now also closed) gave way to the most humane, the kindest-hearted, the most equal of the French, and maybe of the Europeans.All the French know at least the two first verses of this Enrico Macias -a North African Jew!- song : "People of the North have in the eyes the blue that their setting is lacking, people of the North have in their heart the sun that they don't have outside" I've personally known a Ch'ti family who used to leave their door open all day in the worst suburb of Paris ; one of my wife's acquaintances told her how, when she was a kid, she and her friends, roaming the streets of their mining city, would simply enter any home, at random, through its already opened door, and just had to say "we're hungry" or "we're thirsty" to be regaled with waffles and apple juice, all of them, always (and remember that these people were the poorest)...Dany Boon himself describes how, as she moved to the North, one of his friends stopped passers-by who were picking her furniture up from inside the truck, in fear that they were stealing her belongings, when in fact they were spontaneously helping her...She just couldn't fathom that!Oh yes, the Normands are cool, the Bretons are serious, the Alsacians are hard-working, the Southwesterners are tough, the Provençals are jolly, the Auvergnats are thrifty, and the Corsicans...Well, forget it. OK, OK...But the heart of gold belongs to the Ch'tis, although they live in the worst environment, the worst climate, the worst unemployment, everybody knows that in France, and this film lifts part of the shroud around this enduring mystery, hence its phenomenal success.There! Fascination explained!Now about the story : a small-ranking Manager from the French Postal Service, married to a disenchanted but beautiful wife and living in Provence, though not yet on the Riviera, understanding that only disabled employees can have a chance to move out there, tries to con his way by faking disability, gets caught (hilarious scene), and is sent, as a disciplinary measure, where nobody in France wants to go, the gloomy, desperate North...What region? Simply that : the North, it's the region name, a program in itself (Michel Galabru, hilarious as a Provençal who lived the northern freezing hell for a while in his childhood, simply states "ThaaaAAAt's the NoooooOOrr!") ; for fear of aggravating his wive's depression, he goes alone with the promise to return home on every week-end.At first, everything fits in his gloomy scenario : gloomy climate, gloomy urban landscapes, incomprehensible people speaking a bastardized dialect, smelly cheese dipped in the (YUCK!) morning coffee (in fact curled endive decoction, one other northern specialty)...But little by little, he is tipped over by the kindness of the people ; only, this is a double-edged sword, for the more his wife believes he is living in hell, the more affectionate and amorous she gets...Finally, our hero is living the best of both worlds, happy at work and happy at home, by lying blatantly about his everyday life...Alas, alas, his wife, realizing how egoistical she's been until then, decides to join him in exile...And then...Ah, better let you see the film!Overall : a very good film, sometimes emotional, sometimes funny, sometimes really hilarious.

"Bienvenue chez les Ch'tis" is a nice comedy, but to be honest it's kinda hard understanding how it managed to become such a huge hit, considering the basic plot has been done zillions of times already.Basically it's the good old "they sound different, they look different but in the end they're just like us!" chiché. Sure the misunderstanding between the main character and the townsfolk are funny, especially the conversation about the furniture, but then again it's not nearly enough to sustain the whole movie. The thing is: many of us have experienced some sort of culture shock, be it in the same country or abroad, but the movie just glosses over the two long years the main character had to spend among the Ch'tis... It's as if he had gone over the whole language/cultural issue in a matter of a month or so and from there onwards it was all fine and dandy... Besides the drunken delivery day, and the over-the-top "welcome to the horror" shenanigans to convince the wife Bergues was a disgusting place, there's no reason to actually "see" how well the main character and the Ch'tis bonded. It's all left to our imagination, or it's more or less a given... after all the Ch'tis are nice people so there's no need to actually prove it on-screen. We got the wholesome message, and it's OK, but what about giving us some actual reason to care more?It's a shame because the premise could have offered for more and less traditional developments. All in all a nice little comedy, but nothing overly new. This time around it was about Northern Frenchmen speaking a weird dialect/language, but it could have been about Hillbilies, Guidos, Texans, Northern Norwegians, Bavarians etc... Or Southern Italians, as in the even more stereotyped remake "Benvenuti al Sud"...

This movie is easily the best French film that has come out in the last years. It is an excellent comedy with the two great actors Dany Boon and Kad Merad but the movie has also its philosophical, dramatical and sad parts.This movie is extremely funny, it is really difficult to make me laugh but this film made me laugh really hard several times. The best examples are when the postman and his director are having some drinks with half of the town while they deliver the letters or the scenes in the old mining town of Bergues, This movie is extremely touching and emotional. When the excellent Kad Merad tells his new partners and friends about his lies and mistakes, you feel really sad and ashamed for him. The movie's finale is also very emotional and a perfect and really philosophical conclusion.But the real star of the movie is the whole region, the Nord-Pas-de-Calais, where this movie is settled. This film presents strange and funny accents of the Sticks, their historical and charming towns, their way of living and thinking, their relation to the other parts of France and the clichés and prejudices about both sides. The Nord-Pas-de-Calais is more than just a part of France, it is a country within a country and a culture within a culture. I have been in this region for some weeks during an exchange program and I can tell that those people living there are mostly open-minded, very sympathetic and have many reasons to be proud of their region. I really like this movie as it reminds me of a few very positive and unforgettable memories. And I like the movie because it is different and finally a French film that doesn't present us Paris over and over again. The France is way more than just Paris and there are many beautiful and unique regions and people to discover and this successful and charming movie shows this to all the people out there.For everyone that is interested in a touching, emotional and simply profound comedy movie or anyone that likes foreign cultures and lifestyles, this unique movie is an absolute masterpiece. I hope that other French regions will follow this example and make similar movies in the future and take the focus off Paris a little bit.

I have not laughed so hard in a long, long time. For those who understand the easy-going French spirit, there is not better comedy than a French comedy. And this is one of their funniest. Of course one has to suspend one's disbelief on a number of occasions - heck it's a comedy, not a documentary. The French do not concern themselves with political correctness either. They laugh at everything and everybody in a good natured way - not to create controversy (a la South Park). Humour comes to them naturally. It's a party and everyone is invited. Enjoy the party! If you want an action blockbuster or a film with another type of humour (British, American etc...) this is not a good film to see. It's a comedy.