One can approach "French Immersion" in two ways : either you can brush it off as a harmless comedy and laugh at its stereotypical fantasies, or you can shiver in anger at all the horrible propaganda it tries to inundate your mind with.
First and foremost, there is no way a small french immersion school set in a remote and economically striving Lac-Saint-Jean village could financially save such a community. The number of employees shown is too small for that, and the townspeople involved are mostly unpaid volunteers.
The most insulting part, however, comes from the cast. On one side, the Canadian students look like a cast of supporting actors straight out of a Sex and the City episode : thin, sexy, sober, intelligent.
On the other one, the Québécois cast, more realistic, is filled with more diversified - physically and psychologically - characters : some are bizarre-looking, some are opportunistic, brash, narrow-minded, gay & effeminate (whereas the Canadian gay is more composed), exaggeratedly curious or religious zealots.
Have the writers really experienced Québec? The local priest looks like from the 1910-1950s, walking the streets fully robed and with its thurible (incense-spreading tool), blessing the out-of-the-ordinary things and events happening around the village. There is no way such a character could really exist nowadays, and not even 6 years ago, as Québec has been plunging during the past 50 years on the path of secularization.
The relationships between the Québécois volunteers and the Canadian students are also awkward. Most volunteers act like mentally challenged people - humorist Peter McLeod is horrible in such a role -, while their Canadian counterparts, looking calm and open minded if a bit puzzled, do their best to adapt to the situation. The catholic grandmother feels out of place, especially when she fears its Jewish guest's soul will be damned to Hell. Nobody cares about that in Québec anymore.
What disgusted me the most, however, is when she learns from her granddaughter the Jewish man is circumcised. Really!? Everybody knows that, this is no mystery. Then the women enter their guest's bedroom and try to see for themselves. The grandmother is pleased, but quickly evacuated from the room as consensual sex ensues. Yeah, right : just try to reverse the roles - two man peaking and a woman peak at - and this will be called "rape". So why is it okay for a male to become a sexual object? The list goes on and on. The county is supposedly nationalistic, but everyone in the movie seems okay with manipulating a possibly future prime minister of Canada to get what they need. "We all voted for René Lévesque back in the days" they say, like if it was trivial. Let's go all back to ethnic survival, bending knees and kissing federal asses to get the money we send to Ottawa, at least a bit of it, back.
*SIGH* There is not enough space in here to fully criticize the movie, but it feels good to point a few of its fatal flaws on the screen. Bottom line : avoid this movie if you can. If you cannot, take it for what it is : a piece of anti-Québec propaganda.
First and foremost, there is no way a small french immersion school set in a remote and economically striving Lac-Saint-Jean village could financially save such a community. The number of employees shown is too small for that, and the townspeople involved are mostly unpaid volunteers.
The most insulting part, however, comes from the cast. On one side, the Canadian students look like a cast of supporting actors straight out of a Sex and the City episode : thin, sexy, sober, intelligent.
On the other one, the Québécois cast, more realistic, is filled with more diversified - physically and psychologically - characters : some are bizarre-looking, some are opportunistic, brash, narrow-minded, gay & effeminate (whereas the Canadian gay is more composed), exaggeratedly curious or religious zealots.
Have the writers really experienced Québec? The local priest looks like from the 1910-1950s, walking the streets fully robed and with its thurible (incense-spreading tool), blessing the out-of-the-ordinary things and events happening around the village. There is no way such a character could really exist nowadays, and not even 6 years ago, as Québec has been plunging during the past 50 years on the path of secularization.
The relationships between the Québécois volunteers and the Canadian students are also awkward. Most volunteers act like mentally challenged people - humorist Peter McLeod is horrible in such a role -, while their Canadian counterparts, looking calm and open minded if a bit puzzled, do their best to adapt to the situation. The catholic grandmother feels out of place, especially when she fears its Jewish guest's soul will be damned to Hell. Nobody cares about that in Québec anymore.
What disgusted me the most, however, is when she learns from her granddaughter the Jewish man is circumcised. Really!? Everybody knows that, this is no mystery. Then the women enter their guest's bedroom and try to see for themselves. The grandmother is pleased, but quickly evacuated from the room as consensual sex ensues. Yeah, right : just try to reverse the roles - two man peaking and a woman peak at - and this will be called "rape". So why is it okay for a male to become a sexual object? The list goes on and on. The county is supposedly nationalistic, but everyone in the movie seems okay with manipulating a possibly future prime minister of Canada to get what they need. "We all voted for René Lévesque back in the days" they say, like if it was trivial. Let's go all back to ethnic survival, bending knees and kissing federal asses to get the money we send to Ottawa, at least a bit of it, back.
*SIGH* There is not enough space in here to fully criticize the movie, but it feels good to point a few of its fatal flaws on the screen. Bottom line : avoid this movie if you can. If you cannot, take it for what it is : a piece of anti-Québec propaganda.