No Ordinary Fool

This is a madcap French comedy where Philippe (Kad Merad), a postal worker, is sent to the very north of France as punishment for trying to obtain a transfer to the Riviera under false pretences. The film’s structure works around the simple idea that a stranger to the north cries twice whilst he is there – when he first arrives and when he finally leaves. In the meantime, the rest of the country is utterly convinced that the north is freezing cold, that the people are incomprehensible, hard-drinking, and boorish, and that most of them still work (and possibly live) in the coal mines.

Philippe leaves behind his wife Julie (Zoé Félix), who feels too depressed to go up north. Once there, he discovers, after some inevitable initial mishaps, that his exile will be far from unenjoyable. However, because it makes his wife happy, Philippe is forced into concealing his new-found lease on life from her on his fortnightly visits back home. The other form of tension in the film comes from postal worker Antoine (Dany Boon), who finds himself torn between the love of his life Annabelle (Anne Marivin) and his domineering mother (the marvellously cast Line Renaud). On the whole, both storylines are simple and familiar, with endings that will not surprise the audience. However, the obvious focus in this film is the laughs along the way.

However, a lot of the humour feels quite a bit dated (scenes or running gags from classic British comedies such as Only Fools and Horses and ‘Allo, ‘Allo! come readily to mind). Moreover, the mileage obtained from the joke of people being shocked by Philippe’s departutre to work up north is matched only by the actual distance that he needs to drive to get there. At the same time, Merad and Boon are a loveable pair of comic actors and it is hard not to just rattle along merrily with their inane escapades. Indeed, the scenes where Julie first comes to visit Philippe are the film’s high point. The actors’ take here on people’s stereotypical misgivings about life in northern France are over-the-top silly but all the more comic for it.

The one major problem that non-French speakers will have with the film, though, is that a great deal of its comedy is derived from how people up the north are supposed to speak. Whilst an admirable job gets done with conveying the sense of the jokes in the subtitles, it simply is not the same as hearing the difference. During the credits, they show some outtakes of the actors trying to cope with the script. it provides some sense for the tongue-twisting nature of the lines.

Undeniably, there are parts of Welcome to the Sticks that are as cheesy as a Christmas cracker joke… in Easter. However, if lighthearted, essentially inoffensive humour is your thing, then this is a really pleasant and enjoyable film to go see. My mother would love it!