Zach Braff Tries to Reignite the Rom-Com

Who said romantic comedies are dead? Dating back to the 1990s and beyond, of course, the crowd-pleasing genre remains a perfect date-night excuse to remain couchbound and watch lovers quarrel, reunite, kiss, make up, and more. French Girl, a new small-budget feature from co-writer-directors James A. Woods and Nicolas Wright, isn’t exactly the most groundbreaking content out there, but it successfully puts a unique little spin on the common love-triangle tropes often seen in modern-day romantic comedies. Zach Braff’s age certainly shows here, but his reliably humorous physical comedy might just bring you back to the glory days of Scrubs.

French Girl

3/5

Release Date March 15, 2024

Director James A. Woods , Nicolas Wright

Runtime 106 Minutes

Writers James A. Woods , Nicolas Wright

Pros

• Good slapstick comedy from Braff
• Brochu is charming as the central love interest
• Actors all have nice chemistry, whether romantic or otherwise

Cons

• Not a particularly new or fresh story
• The humor gets old over time

Culture Clash With a Twist

First of all, the R-rating is misleading. Combined with a simplistic title like French Girl, your dirty mind might go to raunchy places. To that end, the film could have done better than French Girl as a title — it comes off as a bit demeaning, don’t you think? Especially since it’s referring to a full-grown adult woman, not a child or even a teenager. The only reason French Girl received such an adults-only MPAA rating is because more than two F-bombs are uttered during the film’s 110-minute duration. Without those, this could have easily made the PG-13 standards.

But back to the plot. Braff plays Gordon, a schoolteacher living with his girlfriend Sophie (Ophan Black co-star Evelyne Brochu) in Brooklyn — that is until a certain celebrity chef named Ruby (Vanessa Hudgens) swoops in and offers Sophie an exciting career opportunity up north in Quebec. This also happens to be where Sophie’s family is from, and, most significantly, Ruby happens to be a secret old flame of Sophie’s. Cue the love triangle bonanza!

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Quebec means all things French, so the language barrier certainly doesn’t help once Gordon arrives at Sophie’s family farm to shack up while Sophie goes through a sort of training process at Ruby’s famed restaurant in the area. Leading up to the move, Gordon has a hilarious pep-talk with his heavy-drinking writer dad, played to perfection by the prolific character actor William Fichtner. Good to see you back on the big screen! His moments where he banters with Braff mark some of the funniest moments in French Girl. It’s pure sitcom-esque bliss.

Vanessa Hudgens: Femme Fatale?

In terms of other highlights, Evelyne Brochu is frequently irresistible as the titular French girl, a.k.a. a sophisticated, intelligent career woman. Fans of the beloved single-cam sitcom Scrubs will love seeing the reliably animated Braff physically stumble through virtually every scene. Watch as he tries in vain to yank a wedding ring off a deceased in-law’s finger without anyone in Sophie’s family finding out.

He later goes bird hunting with the family and accidentally fires into the water instead, killing a fish. This moment isn’t nearly as funny as the quail hunt in Wedding Crashers, a far superior film, but French Girl certainly has its moments. For example, when Sophie’s brother Junior (Antoine Olivier Pilon) drags Gordon into an MMA square-off in town that leads to Gordon intervening and accidentally knocking the daylights out of his future father-in-law. Yikes!

It all becomes quite slapstick in a sort of similar vein as Ricky Stanicky, which dropped on Prime Video just recently. Both have hit-and-miss end results, but let’s not let physical comedy go to die. When the gags in French Girl eventually become a bit repetitive, that’s when Hudgens takes over the central plot as a femme fatale-type figure, coming back into the picture after having dated Sophie back in the day. The kicker? Gordon doesn’t know about it, even when they come face to face at the dinner table in Quebec…

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As Ruby, Hudgens certainly looks the part of a Food Network-type celebrity chef who wants to feature Sophie’s cooking and family home in her ongoing TV series. Anyone who’s seen High School Musical or Tick, Tick… Boom! know that Hudgens has some pipes. The woman can sing, and she even gets a moment in French Girl to let it rip. “She’s better than Celine,” whispers Sophie’s brother while Ruby sings a cappella at a late relative’s funeral. Hey, at least writer-directors Woods and Wright are utilizing Hudgens’s talents. Remember how jarring it was to see Rihanna star in Prime Video’s musical film Guava Island and not even sing once?

Overall, French Girl isn’t exactly memorable, groundbreaking cinema, but it could make for a light, fun date-night flick for those in the mood. And who doesn’t love a little French language in the mix?

From Paramount Global Content Distribution Group, French Girl hits U.S. theaters on Friday and will be available on digital March 19.

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