Say 'Bon Voyage' to Rappenau's sinking ship

Writer-Director Jean-Paul Rappen-au ("Le Hussard sur le toit" and "Cyrano de Bergerac" (1990)) has proven with his latest film, "Bon Voyage," that the language of production alone cannot save a picture from dreadfully trite screenwriting, poor acting, obnoxious cinematography and vapid characters.

Though French films, or at least those exported to the United States, do achieve a higher level of sophistication than their Southern Californian counterparts, Rappenau and his motley cast teach us the intellectual poverty of such stereotypes.

"Bon Voyage" opens on the life of a superficial French film star Viviane Denvers (Isabelle Adjani of "Monsieur Ibrahim") sleeping her way up the ranks of World War II France. After convincing a naïvely loving young man Fédéric (Grégori Derangère of "L'Année de grandes filles") to take the blame for a murder she had committed, she flees from Paris to Bourdeaux to avoid the Nazi advance. When Fédéric escapes jail and makes the trip to the northeast for his own purposes, he finds himself caught up in all sorts of intrigue. From saving dangerous weapons from the hands of the Nazis to losing both of his romantic interests, Fédéric endures personal and political crises in his quest to find a stable life.

The flaws of this film are too many to list in such a short article, but I will do my best.

Beyond being utterly contrived, dull, un-suspenseful and filled with mind-numbing dialogue, this script suffered a total inability to construct any likable, sympathetic or believable character.

Moving from tawdry love scene to ridiculously on-the-nose chase and back, this film leaves you wondering, "Where's the beef?"

To make matters worse, not a single actor in this film seemed able to portray even the limited range of emotions this monotone director demanded of them. Cinematography couldn't have been more saccharine in its pride over a poorly portrayed, if naturally beautiful, French landscape.

Lacking any entertainment value, this film will certainly go down as one of the times when I, a fervent free-trader, find myself sympathetic to calls for import restrictions.

So if you desperately want to subject yourself to nearly two hours of undifferentiated ennui, this film is for you and plays for $6.50 with a prox at 1:30, 4:15, 6:45 and 9:15 at the Garden Theatre.