This is a classic buddy-cop caper movie with a twist: it's entirely bilingual, featuring two leads (Colm Feore and Patrick Huard) who are cops teamed up from opposite sides of the Quebec-Ontario border to solve a murder.
As a murder mystery, this movie doesn't really work. The suspense is laughable, the plot about as well strung-together as a paperclip chain, and the twists and turns designed more to bring about laughs than to actually advance the story. The hockey theme, of course, is more an excuse to make fun of people like Don Cherry, Eric Lindros and Gary Bettman than it is an actual plot device.
But this movie really gets it right when it comes to exploiting - and making fun of - the Quebec-Ontario cultural divide. Us Montrealers are accustomed to holding bilingual conversations, so a bilingual movie is the next logical step. Every single cliché imaginable finds its way into this one, and the comic timing is perfect. In fact, I was surprised at how much I laughed.
The English version of this film saw fit to introduce subtitles to the French portions, which were distracting at first until I realized that they were actually part of the joke. Fast readers will have a good laugh simultaneously listening to the French and reading the translation and comparing the two. Needless to say, they're quite different, but I suspect it was done that way on purpose.
Shame that it probably won't find an audience outside Quebec, because you pretty much have to be from here to "get" it. To all Montrealers, do run out and see this film!
As a murder mystery, this movie doesn't really work. The suspense is laughable, the plot about as well strung-together as a paperclip chain, and the twists and turns designed more to bring about laughs than to actually advance the story. The hockey theme, of course, is more an excuse to make fun of people like Don Cherry, Eric Lindros and Gary Bettman than it is an actual plot device.
But this movie really gets it right when it comes to exploiting - and making fun of - the Quebec-Ontario cultural divide. Us Montrealers are accustomed to holding bilingual conversations, so a bilingual movie is the next logical step. Every single cliché imaginable finds its way into this one, and the comic timing is perfect. In fact, I was surprised at how much I laughed.
The English version of this film saw fit to introduce subtitles to the French portions, which were distracting at first until I realized that they were actually part of the joke. Fast readers will have a good laugh simultaneously listening to the French and reading the translation and comparing the two. Needless to say, they're quite different, but I suspect it was done that way on purpose.
Shame that it probably won't find an audience outside Quebec, because you pretty much have to be from here to "get" it. To all Montrealers, do run out and see this film!