French for Beginners

The story is simple: boy loves girl and to get her attention he must make some sacrifices - in this case that means traveling with her to France without knowing the language or the country. The acting is wonderful, Paula as Valerie and Francois as Hendrik are very credible.

The film is very romantic, with many vivid dialogs playing charmingly with both French and German clichés. Sometimes the story seems a bit too exaggerated but most of the time this movie is very enjoyable and does a great job in recalling the viewer of his own experiences with the French language and the country - if he has them.

However, if you don't know anything about France and never took French in school you will probably have a hard time understanding some aspects of the movie, unfortunately, those are the important aspects. Subtract those and the movie is only half as good, a romantic teenage love story with few differences to so many others. But if you have any connection to France or its language, you should see this movie, regardless if you like France or you hate it - there is stuff for both its lovers and haters.