There's nothing revolutionary or artistically groundbreaking here, but there's something reassuring in the fact that this is what the French have anointed as their biggest hit. Vive la (low-key) diffrence.

[Dany] Boon tinkers with the formula just enough to make his story fresh and the sentiment at its heart not too sweet, though compounded contrivances in the last 30 minutes of the picture threaten to unravel its peculiar magic.

Boon thinks it funny to leave the boom in shot all the time. It isn't. Indeed, little in this drivel is funny.

Like any fish out of water story, the fun lies in the details, and to its credit, Welcome to the Sticks supplies them with polish.