French Immersion (2011) User Reviews

Neither the best Canadian movie, nor the worst.

[caiged · 5/10 · 23 November 2012]

Contrary to the other user views French Immersion is definitely NOT the best or worst. Some of my nominees for best would be Good Cop Bon Cop and Starbuck.

What French Immersion does well is introduce and maintain a level of quaint quirkiness throughout the movie. Some of the jokes or least cracks involving the dislike between the English speaking population and the French is tongue in cheek but funny. But other things were handled rather amateurishly, so there was a lot of room for improvement, just as there was scope for development.

The idea of having a group of non french speakers go to a town in Quebec to learn French was good but there was hardly any french spoken when the group was left to its own devices. Most of the English group had their own agendas which were not properly developed. Even the plot about the gay politician learning french so he could use it to strengthen his candidacy for national leadership was stale and didn't really amount to much. The only interesting thing was the burgeoning romance between Julie and Colin.

All this amounts to a silly, somewhat watchable fare. As long as you accept that it's neither the best nor the worst Canadian film you'll be fine.

Another bad Canadian film....

[JonathanWalford · 4/10 · 28 September 2012]

French Immersion starts off with great promise. A town in Northern Quebec is suffering economically after their mine closes. The town creates a French immersion school where participants stay with locals for an 'around the clock' French Immersion experience. Interesting characters are introduced playing the locals and students (most of whom are English Canadians).

After the set-up however, and some funny one-liners, the follow-through of the storyline fails. There are numerous scenes for potential that are squandered - a family who explains in French to a gay Newfy politician that he will be staying in their daughter's room who has gone to school, is misinterpreted by the politician as gone to heaven. A Jewish chef from New York befriends the local Indian restaurant owner whose new bride from India refuses to come out of her room. The Jewish chef makes Creme Brulee but the bride doesn't eat it, leaving the viewer confused as to why the scene was included in the film, especially when the Jewish chef skis home during a freak snow storm in July...?

The school is closed down after a surprise inspection occurs during an argument between English Canadian students and French Canadian faculty about who produces the best hockey players - English or French Canada. This street hockey challenge could have been a great scene in the movie, but in this film it falls flat, and afterwards the entire film also falls flat - ending inexplicably in a Bollywood dance sequence.

The film has a great set-up and gimmick but there is no follow-through. I hope someone who has the vision remakes this film because it could be hilarious from start to finish.

Set your expectations right and you'll be entertained

[cosmochickita · 6/10 · 10 April 2019]

It's an entertaining movie. No more no less. It doesn't take itself too seriously so neither should you. And if that's what you go in with, you'll be pleasantly surprised. The situations are funny and imaginative, some work and some don't. The characters all have their stories and by the end you care a little for all of them. Literally there isn't more to it. If you want a light hearted movie that centers on Canada and the situation of Quebec vs rest of Canada, then this is cute movie. There is nothing to take offence to and let's definitely not dissect this movie for accuracy, it's a comedy.

Anti-Québec propaganda at its worst

[ghoule-582-207091 · 1/10 · 5 January 2017]

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.

Best Canadian comedy movie in history

[enfantdelaverite · 10/10 · 17 August 2012]

This is the best Canadian comedy movie in the history of Canadian cinema. Congratulations TVA.

Putting together Canada's most distinct societies, Quebec and Newfoundland & Labrador, with a cast including ardent Quebecois rock composer and singer Robert Charlebois and "The Republic of Newfoundland"'s "22 Minutes" Gavin Crawford is sheer genius.

And it's all set in a typically Canadian rural community that could just as well be full of Manitobans, Ontarians, or any other provincials living in Canada. This movie is a great satirical look at the way so many Canadians see Canada and the rest of the "outside" world, i.e. everywhere beyond the town boundaries.

There are tonnes of inside jokes requiring a pan-Canadian knowledge of Canada, its bilingual and multicultural essence. It's a very good way of learning about Canada and Canadians.

If you don't get this movie don't worry. It just means you're not really Canadian.