NOTHING TO DECLARE (Rien à déclarer)
Reviewer: Lieven Golvers
Rated: 15 (UK)
UK Release Date: 11 February 2011, (Belgium 26 January, spain 8 April, Germany 28 July)
Director: Dany Boon
Cast: Benoît Poelvoorde, Dany Boon , Julie Bernard
The year is 1993, the Shengen Agreement goes in effect and thus opening up the borders between France and Belgium (among others). This is much to the dismay of Ruben Vandevoorde (Benoît Poelvoorde) a Belgian customs officer who furiously loves his country and has an even more furious hate for the French, whom he refers to as “Les Camenberts”. Part of the opening of the borders is the creation of an experimental Franco-Belge border patrol, or Belgo-France as Vandevoorde would say, in which our dear protagonist will take part. Parallel with this story we have the love story of a French customs officer Mathias Ducatel (Director Dany Boon himself) and Louise Vandevoorde (Julie Bernard), yes you guessed it right: it’s Ruben Vandevoorde’s sister, which is very much a Romeo and Juliet affair. The central movement in the film is the relation of the two customs officers Vandevoorde and Ducatel.
The movie touches on much of the same themes as actor-director-writer Dany Boon’s previous outing, Bienvenue Chez les Ch’tis (which became the highest-grossing French movie of all time, toppling La Grande Vadrouille which stood at the top since 1966), where a postman of southern France has to move to the Nord-Pas-de-Calais. Both movies feature a plethora of regional peculiarities, prejudices, clichés and racist jokes. This is not the only thing these two movies share: Boon shows great skill in creating an authentic look and feel. The (imaginary) town of Courquain/Koorkin where the story takes place shows plenty of characteristic regional details and typical Belgian and French products. This feel of authenticity is not only one of place but also one of time: from the first frame onwards you really are pulled back in time to the early nineties.
The storyline which is made up of several perfectly intertwining and overlapping narratives, the likes of which I will not spoil for you here, is quite straightforward and at times even predictable. But the fact that it is rife with splendid humor makes you forget all about that and enables you to just enjoy the ride. Another criticism can be directed at the characters, which are two-dimensional cardboard figures who lack a sense of originality, where it not that these characters fit the story perfectly and feature a casting about which nothing other can be said than “spot on”. This makes them ooze with charm and character. Benoît Poelvoorde is especially enticing as the racist Vandevoorde with his raging violent outburst and his slimy sweet-talking with complementary great facial expressions.
The movie bears a great reminiscence to the old classic French comedy, and you get the feeling that the likes of Bourvil and de Funes might pop onto screen any moment (a feeling already evoked by just looking at the movie poster). There are not only references to the past, but also to the present. It is plain to see that Dany Boon tries to send a message with his movie, a message about the silliness of racism and chauvinism in its purest form. This does not mean that he dismisses everything that Ruben Vandevoorde (Benoît Poelvoorde) exemplifies, as we have seen in Boon’s Bienvenue Chez les Ch’tis he is very much a fan of regional traditions and quirks, but this does not mean that one has to despise another for it.
The movie owes a lot the great French comedies of the past and the general premise might be a bit too much alike Boons previous work, but what Boon tries to do, how unoriginal it might be, works. It’s like an age-old recipe, refined to perfection: it tastes great while it lasts, but it won’t leave you with the wonderful sensation of having discovered something new.
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