Exploring the nuances of romance isn’t as easy as laying waste to cities, as proven by “French Girl,” a new rom-com written and directed by “Independence Day: Resurgence” scribes James A. Woods and Nicolas Wright. The duo quickly establish a frisky, fond intimacy between longterm couple Gordon (Zach Braff) and Sophie (Evelyne Brochu) before putting it in jeopardy when an old flame, Ruby (Vanessa Hudgens), enters the picture, leaving Braff’s killjoy protagonist miserable as he tests Sophie’s patience and doubts her devotion to him. The 48-year-old actor is an amiable performer, and “French Girl” should hardly be the his swan song as a leading man, but this role serves as a warning that hapless, puppyish charm doesn’t wear quite as snuggly after a certain age. If playing the ingenue has an expiration date, so, too, does inhabiting the boyish beau.
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At the start of “French Girl,” Gordon, a middle-school English teacher, attempts to cook breakfast for his love. Alas, the boyfriend is a disaster in the kitchen. Gordon’s failure to brunch, so to speak, could be chalked up, at least in part, to being intimidated: Sophie is a gifted chef. In fact, Sophie she’s at the top of her game, to the point of her being scouted to move from New York to Quebec City to serve as executive chef at a luxury hotel.
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Brochu plays the eponymous French girl with an appealing, authentic intelligence that would seem to belie the film’s moniker. Hudgens is Ruby, the old friend turned haute celebrity restaurateur who comes back into Sophie’s life. (The singer-actor even belts a song.) Quebec City is the former couple’s old stamping grounds and the hometown of Sophie’s family.
While it takes little guesswork to figure out Sophie and Ruby have a romantic history, the news comes as an upending surprise to Gordon after his girlfriend accepts the job offer. Perhaps Sophie stayed mum because — as Gordon fears — she still has feelings for Ruby. Or perhaps it’s just as she claims: she knew that her beloved but anxious boyfriend would freak. And he does.
Sophie’s family doesn’t help matters. They have always been fond of Ruby — even after the break-up — and are underwhelmed by Gordon. He tries too hard to make an impression on dad Alphonse (Luc Picard), mom Ginette (Isabelle Vincent) and siblings, Juliette (Charlotte Aubin) and Junior (Antoine Olivier Pilon). Gordon’s easiest mark may be grandmother Mammie (Muriel Dutil), who has begun showing signs of dementia.
Braff exerts a lot of effort in the absurd pratfalls, which include succumbing to a pill offered by his father (William Fichtner) on a flight to Quebec, running from a snappish swan and trying to recover the heirloom ring he plans to put on Sophie’s finger after Mammie gains possession of it. Hudgens, too, is burdened by the rom-com’s investment in an overstated rivalry. Ruby’s as arrogantly assured in her profession as Gordon is exhaustingly insecure. Compared against better recent culinary works — “The Bear,” “The Taste of Things,” heck, even “The Menu” — Ruby’s foodie hauteur feels overcooked.
Thank goodness for Sophie’s family and the Quebec setting (the filmmakers, too, are Canadian). While they serve a narrative function — to be won over— they also bring a credible warmth to various meals, squabbles and heart-to-hearts. Picard does a good job as Sophie’s doubtful but loving father; it’s easy to side with him in his shortness with Gordon, facing financial pressures as a small farm owner. And it doesn’t help that his son Junior has no plans to follow in the family business; he wants to be a cop.
There are the briefest of moments early in “French Girl” when the movie looks as if it might take a turn for something more winsome. Much of this has to do with Brochu’s performance as Sophie, which possesses a nice mix of culinary ambition, unfaltering loyalty (until Gordon goes too far) and a sincere fondness for her family. During a brief romantic hiatus, Sophie gathers with the women in her family to cook in the farmhouse kitchen, with neither the tiresome Gordon or the dictatorial Ruby in the frame. Instead, the Canadians are front and center, and their easy, prickly affection proves palpable.
But that familial respite can’t last. The demigods of rom-com must be fed, after all. And so, Gordon grows more desperate, and Ruby more duplicitous. In the end, neither exactly seems worthy of Sophie, but then the lesson here is that there was never really a contest. For every inventive or simply satisfying rom-com, there are dozens of clumsy, rote ones — “French Girl” falls among the latter.