Mission Pays Basque (2017)
Directed by Ludovic Bernard

Film Review

After making a promising debut with his 2017 comedy L'Ascension, director Ludovic Bernard shifts down several gears with a rom-com that fails spectacularly to get off the starting block.  Mission Pays basque is the kind of lowbrow fare that revels in its crass regional stereotyping and it leaves absolutely no tired old cliché about Basque country folk unturned in its desperate attempts to extract humour from its flimsy premise.  It's a surprising descent into toe-curling mediocrity for a director who cut his teeth working as an assistant to such dependable filmmakers as Luc Besson (The Lady, Lucy) and Olivier Megaton (Taken 2).

Bernard isn't the main culprit for the film's failure.  That distinction goes to its screenwriters Michel Delgado and Eric Heumann, who seem to have only the vaguest comprehension of what humour really is, if their dismal contribution to this comedy misfire is anything to go by.  For Delgado, this is especially surprising, given that he has already authored one highly entertaining comedy, Bouquet final (2008). The principals Élodie Fontan, Florent Peyre and Daniel Prévost do what they can with the lacklustre material they are given but even their combined efforts are defeated in the end by the sheer ineptitude of the writing.

Film Synopsis

Sibylle, a feisty young career go-getter, thinks she has made the deal of the century when she hoodwinks a naive-seeming ironmonger, Ferran Beitialarrangoïta, into selling his Basque Country store for a fraction of its real value.  Naturally, she keeps from her hapless victim that the dreary little shop will be converted into a modern supermarket, at great profit to herself and her employers.  Just when the deal appears to be signed and sealed Sibylle hits upon a slight glitch.  It seems that because of his mental deficiency Ferran's business affairs must all be signed off by his nephew, Ramon.

So, for the deal to be concluded and Sibylle's career prospects safeguarded she must gain Ramon's confidence and get him to sign over his uncle's store to her at the agreed derisory price.  Unfortunately for her, Ramon is not quite so easy-going as his uncle and Sibylle is about to take on the most difficult of adversaries in a part of France she barely knows.  Thus begins a ferocious game of cat and mouse that could lead anywhere for the ruthless Parisian who is ready to do anything to close a real estate deal with a local boy who has no intention of making things easy for her...