Welcome Abroad

Sixtysomething artist Taillandier (Patrick Chesnais) is in a creative trough. He hasn’t put brush to canvas in a year, and walks out on his long-suffering spouse, destination unknown. Along the road, he’s joined, as much by accident as design, by 15-year-old stray Marylou (newcomer Jeanne Lambert), who’s been thrown out by her troubled mum. Neither of them know where to go next, so the older man takes the girl under his wing, fatherly instinct kicking in, perhaps a prelude to the regeneration of creative impulses. Although it thankfully resists the lechery angle, this easygoing drama from 79-year-old Jean Becker is bland and predictable in almost every other respect, looking no further than the usual odd-couple clichés and opting for trite story beats rather than believable characterisation. Kudos to the leads however, who emerge with credit: Lambert never overdoes the pouty teen petulance, and Chesnais (who played a not dissimilar curmudgeonly role in 2005’s ‘Not Here To Be Loved’) always ensures there’s an underlying warmth to his grumpy old codger.