... the old stories and Danny Boon in his fourth At Bat reaches back to the Bard for one of the main strands of his latest triple threat entry, the star-crossed lovers from two rival Houses except the rivals are not so much Houses as countries, France and Belgium respectively. After shooting a video Boon made an auspicious debut behind the camera with Maison du bonheur which was eclipsed - in popularity if not necessarily in content - with Welcome To The Sticks which swept all before it and quickly became the biggest grosser of all time in France. 'Sticks' capitalized on rural quirkiness and either Boon himself or some entrepreneur frightened by a Hollywood Producer clearly decreed that there's gold in tham thar sticks so that here we have yet another wide part in the road with the crucial difference that this jerkwater town also straddles the border between France and Belgium and with Custom Offices tumbling like harness makers xenophobia will soon be a thing of the past. Striving for authenticity Boon has cast some bone fide Belgian actors in the shape of Benoit Pooleverde and Olivier Gourmet. The latter achieved success as a comedian in the Lous de Funes mould then switched equally successfully to straight roles viz Entre ses mains and is now back in his natural habitat as a French-hating Belgian Customs official. Trouble is his sister Louise is in love with his Frnech counterpart, Boon and vice versa. Their simmering rivalry is brought to a head when, on the eve of closure, they are teamed against their will as a task force to combat smuggling. There are chuckles if not exactly belly laughs a plenty and Karin Viard gets a chance to leave the fragile plain Janes behind and take on the kind of role that Francoise Rosay used to play back in the thirties. All in all it's a pleasant diversion but not necessarily one you'd buy on DVD.
Review of Nothing to Declare
