French Girl
Written and Directed by James A. Woods and Nicolas Wright
Starring Zach Braff, Evelyne Brochu, and Vanessa Hudgens
Rated R
Runtime: 1 hour, 50 minutes
In select theaters March 15

by Megan Robinson, Staff Writer

How “romantic” is the romantic comedy anymore? How often is a palpable chemistry felt between actors who are supposed to fall in love or, at the very least, flirt? When did innuendo and tension get replaced with running gags with small moments of routine coupledom placed in between? Is the “comedy” in the romantic comedy even funny anymore? These are the questions that race through the minds of many as most attempts in the last few years to revitalize the genre, or at least bring back its mainstream success as a cultural touchstone, have failed to entertain or delight. Anyone but You is one of the few recent financial success stories of recent years, but will its monetary gains make it stand the test of time as a charming, romantic, and laugh-out-loud film? Will others join its ranks? French Girl, for all its quiet charm and more modern premise, unfortunately will not.

French Girl follows Gordon Kinski (Zach Braff), a middle school English teacher from Brooklyn looking forward to a summer vacation with his chef girlfriend Sophie Tremblay (Evelyne Brochu). Sophie, though, is approached by her ex-girlfriend and celebrity chef Ruby Collins (Vanessa Hudgens) with a job offer to join the ranks of her new restaurant in Quebec. Gordon and Sophie take their vacation instead up north, Gordon faced with making a good impression on the Tremblays to gain their blessing and ask Sophie to marry him. He soon, however, discovers Sophie and Ruby’s past, convinced Ruby wants her back.

There are few things that make French Girl feel unique. Sophie’s Quebecois family isn’t filled with wacky, one note characters, which makes them refreshing. At the same time, however, none of them are particularly unique or standout, even those with more meaty roles like Antoine Olivier Pilon as Junior. The film is mostly down to earth despite falling into the pitfalls of tired romantic comedy cliches like misunderstandings about cheating or an inability to impress parents. The farm setting that Gordon spends most of his time with the Tremblays in is grounded, feeling like a real place that a real family owns. Even when cliches rear their head, especially due to Gordon’s bumbling anxiety, apologies are always said and feelings communicated. This–while unique to the genre’s usual embrace of emotional messiness–does make for a formula within the film itself: Gordon embarrasses Sophie, or Sophie neglects Gordon, one apologizes, they try to have sex to prove that they’re a loving couple, and they never do, whether it be because of the possibly offensive one-note running gag about Mammie Tremblay’s (Muriel Dutil) dementia or Sophie’s own exhaustion. 

Just like Sophie’s family, Gordon and Sophie herself feel grounded in humanity, but not necessarily interesting. They feel like the average people you can meet on the street, yet outside of their jobs it feels difficult to name their hopes, their tastes, or even why they’re drawn to each other. Braff made a name for himself playing a loveable but slightly dim goofball on Scrubs, but that same charm is rarely found. Though he has a kindness to him when he teaches his class on the last day of school in full Shakespeare garb at the beginning of the film, other attempts to look sweet and well-meaning just fall flat. Braff tries to make the jokes land, and some do thanks to his line delivery, but most others are lackluster gags, like a swan on the farm that chases Gordon around several times throughout the film for no more than five seconds in each instance.

The standout performance comes from Vanessa Hudgens, who eats up every moment as this two-faced megastar who smiles for the camera and schemes behind it. While most other characters fail to elicit any emotion in the audience, Hudgens is able to make Ruby a perfect character that you love to hate. One scene even lets her vocal talents shine in a song that is equal parts well-sung and hilarious, entirely too bombastic and loved by everyone who hears it. The only concern lies with the idea of Ruby as an antagonist, as her status as Sophie’s ex-girlfriend opens up to a plot that would make Gordon look almost bigoted if she weren’t so sinister. Is Ruby only so sinister because she’s a queer woman, or would this character be written in the same way as a man? After all, the film’s initial trailer was met with concern that it might be “biphobia the movie.” Check the reactions online, and many posts find it regressive and confusing to even root for Braff’s character. Really, though, the film offers so little to say it’s hard to even determine whether its more modern, bisexual dynamic is anything but a plot point.

Overall, James A. Woods and Nicolas Wright’s film has nothing to say. It may be refreshing to see people who look and behave like real people in a film from a genre that has been known to be fantastical, but they lack the depth or emotions. Everyone in the film feels more like an acquaintance or a peer rather than a close friend. The city of Quebec looks gorgeous when Gordon and Sophie can spend time in it, and her family farm feels like a taste of realism when compared to some of the gags (especially those involving pantaloons). It has a sweet conclusion, decent jokes, and a performance from Hudgens that proves her comedic potential. French Girl doesn’t do anything wrong because it can’t really claim to be doing much at all–neither funny nor romantic, neither progressive nor offensive, it just entertains in bits and pieces.