WELCOME TO THE STICKS (Dany Boon). 106 minutes. Subtitled. Opens Friday (January 23). For venues and times, see Movies. Rating: NN
I’m at a loss to understand why Welcome To The Sticks (Bienvenue Chez Les Ch’tis) is the biggest movie in France’s box-office history.
Kad Merad stars as a bumbling postal executive exiled to northern France after his plan to land a swanky Riviera gig by pretending to be handicapped is foiled.
Quelle surprise, he ends up liking his new home hundreds of miles from his shrewish yet totally hot wife (Zoé Félix), and becomes fast friends with the locals, who are quirky and charming. Their strange French dialect leads to a lot of misunderstandings that only make reading the subtitles laborious.
The result is like the worst episodes of Northern Exposure, which is why I fully expect a remake starring Ben Stiller or Adam Sandler.
