Sibling ribaldry

>> A dysfunctional family makes a rowdy pilgrimage in the amiable Saint-Jacques… la Mecque

by MALCOLM FRASER

Writer/director Coline Serreau keeps busy with her own films, along with the occasional acting gig, in France, but isn’t that well known on this side of the pond (though she did make Trois hommes et un couffin, the 1985 comedy that was remade in Hollywood as Three Men and a Baby). In her latest, Saint-Jacques… la mecque, a trio of dysfunctional siblings—grumpy teacher Clara (Muriel Robin), uptight businessman Pierre (Artus de Penguern) and alcoholic welfare case Claude (Jean-Pierre Darroussin)—are summoned to the office of a notary, who informs them that they’ll only inherit their mother’s fortune on the condition that they undertake the Saint-Jacques de Compostelle pilgrimage together, a two-month journey on foot.

The siblings, who all hate each other, aren’t religious and have no interest in extreme hiking, decide to swallow their pride and do the walk for the cause of their mom’s money. Their tour group includes a cancer survivor, two teenage girls and a young Arab dude who’s just there to mack on one of the girls and drags his hapless friend along for companionship. The mismatched bunch inevitably get to know each other intimately, and various antics, heartbreaks and hook-ups ensue.

This is the second pilgrimage film, or pedestrian road movie, to come out of France recently, after last year’s Emmenez-moi. But while that one had a traditional art-house pace with its use of long takes, Saint-Jacques is edited rapidly, almost hyperactively. Shot on DV, it has a slam-bang aesthetic that occasionally recalls the immediacy of the Dogma 95 films, though with a more sensible use of the tripod. The intense dialogue scenes are periodically broken up with dream sequences, which are artfully staged if a little heavy-handed in their symbolism.

In fact, the humour and the drama are also played pretty broadly, occasionally venturing into corny territory. But the performances are all good, the actors fully embodying their characters, and while it might have been nice to get to know these characters in a bit more detail, the snappy pace keeps things rolling and prevents the film from getting carried away with its comedic and melodramatic excesses. It’s no masterpiece, but pretty hard to dislike.

Saint-Jacques... la mecque opens
this Monday, April 30 at the
Cinéma du Parc

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