Les mauvaises herbes / Bad Seeds (2016) - Refreshingly unique - 7/10 (13/02/19)

Bad Seeds is a French-Canadian comedy movie that doesn't necessarily convince with great jokes but rather with awkward situation comedy, interesting characters and wonderful winter landscapes.

The movie tells the story of a stage actor with gambling debts who escapes Montreal via a bus trip and ends up in the administrative region of Abitibi-Témiscamingue in Western Quebec. He encounters a grumpy farmer who illegally grows and sells weed in order to make enough money to make the childhood dream of his estranged son come true before a terminal illness kills him. Knowing each other's secret, the two men decide to work together but are soon disturbed by an unhappy Lesbian teenager who verifies the farm's electricity meter and accidentally discovers its secret. The teenage girl is kidnapped and forced to stay with the two men. After some initial misunderstandings and tensions, the trio actually starts appreciating working together but their luck soon starts to turn when the teenager falls in love with a local clerk, when the farmer gets sicker every day and when the loan sharks the stage actor tried to run away from end up tracking him down.

On the positive side, the movie's script is quite creative and at times unpredictable. There are constantly new surprises around the corner leading to hilarious situation comedy and some poignant black humour as well. The three main characters are fleshed out and surprisingly realistic as they have their positive and negative sides and offer heroic actions but make dumb decisions as well. The movie's conclusion even has some depth and offers some food for thought. It certainly doesn't offer a conventional happy ending but a very satisfactory conclusion nevertheless.

On the negative side, some of the jokes could have been funnier and delivered with more energy to work better. The film has a few lengthy dialogues here and there, especially in the first third. The movie only starts getting truly intense when the teenager gets involved.

Anyone who likes French-Canadian cinema and creative comedy movies that walk off the beaten path, should give this movie a chance. I watched it on television in its original French version with English subtitles which is perfectly fine. Bad Seeds certainly is a vivid change from the usual stereotypical Hollywood comedy movies. It isn't a sequel, prequel, remake or anything else. And it doesn't try to offer some shallow sociocritical message like so many other contemporary comedy films. Bad Seeds is refreshingly unique.