Rom-coms have struggled to find their place in cinema in the last few years. The ’90s and 2000s were defined by romantic comedies and were well respected in Hollywood. Back then, they offered the modern Gen-X woman a dream-like solution to their number one dilemma: How can I have it all?
Mainstream feminism of that time empowered women to have their careers and their own money, but it never de-centred men from their lives. This genre often depicted hyper-critical parents encouraging their daughters to get married and start a family or horrible dates with men who didn’t respect their ambition. Despite carving out their own space in the boys’ club, often our main heroine was left feeling not good enough until she achieved motherhood and marriage.
The improbable pursuit of love was like a dopamine hit for all the Gen-X career girls battling the elements of patriarchy welded into their empowerment. And this is why rom-coms worked – gender roles were still a staple of Western culture. But today’s women are de-centring men from their identities and are developing their self-worth instead. For them, a relationship is a bonus to their empowered lives, not something essential to their happiness.
French Girl understand this modern woman and that is what makes the film so special.
Gordon Kinski (Zach Braff) is an eager-to-please, hopeless romantic, who is ready to propose to his girlfriend Sophie (Évelyn Brochu). But when she gets a career-changing job offer in her hometown of Québec City, they relocate to her family home where Gordon is faced with the challenge of impressing her family.
Gordon is out of his depth and we soon find out that Sophie’s new boss, Ruby (Vanessa Hudgens) is also her former girlfriend. Ruby is confident, powerful, successful and unstoppable. She is still obviously in love with Sophie, but her family cannot seem to see that (including Sophie) because of how well she has managed to fit herself into their lives. But Gordon can and he is defenceless against her charm and connection to Sophie’s family, who are already NOT impressed with his childish demeanour.
Where this movie succeeds the most is in its subversion of toxic rom-com tropes. French Girl is not interested in exploiting its queer characters or undermining Sophie’s ambition and sense of self or Ruby’s success. This movie is about a wonderfully, quirky man trying to find his place in Sophie’s tight-knit family; despite Ruby’s pretentious nature, he is not threatened at all by her boldness or success, instead, he is so blinded his anxiety about fitting in, that he can’t see why Sophie chose him in the first place.
Sophie and Ruby are the representation of modern millennial women; their personhood and former relationship are as natural as breathing and, to me, that is the blueprint for creating modern romantic comedies and dramas. Their self-worth, ambition, and sexuality are not plot devices for their self-actualizations or Gordon’s. Sophie’s career change was never a question of will she? It was, “Will you come with me?” Sophie’s father, Alphonse (Luc Picard), encourages her to keep following her dream and tells Gordon to not interfere with her career goals. These subtle changes to writing a modern heroine are where this movie shines and studios struggling to create a rom-com formula that sticks, should take note.
Although this movie is fun and deeply thoughtful, there are elements for me that just didn’t work. Zach Braff as Gordon felt unnatural and forced. It is clear he understood the character but his performance felt like he was uncomfortable becoming Gordon. This is no shade to Zach at all. I know he can act, but this role didn’t feel right for him. Vanessa Hudgens as Ruby Collins also felt unnatural, some of her character’s background was just unbelievable. We are supposed to see her as this world-renowned chef. This is demonstrated well through her status as a celebrity chef and restaurateur, but then the script piles on about her and Sophie once cooking for Michelle and Barack Obama. It was over-kill and this inconsistency in the writing, I feel is why these incredible actors had a hard time in these roles.
And then there is Peter Kinski (William Fichtner) who plays Zach’s father, their scenes together were reminiscent of Lorelai and Rory Gilmore having a conversation minus the charm and chemistry. Peter as the eccentric, author of best-selling novels, didn’t really make sense to me, I just don’t know who or what this character was meant to be.
That being said, this movie is exciting, very funny and full of jaw-dropping moments that I could not believe made it to screen. It is the perfect date night movie. I hope you check it out!
French Girl is theatres on March 15th, 2024.
