4.5/5

Review by John P. Harvey.

Hyperconscientious border guard Sonia (Julie Le Breton) has upset most of the town’s families with her insistence on enforcing the law, taxing or even confiscating goods upon which Canadian law imposes taxes in crossing the border from the United States.

Sonia first meets Victor (Edouard Baer), an accomplished French chef working in New York, when he is on his way to Montreal to meet his daughter, Gaëlle (Lélia Nevert), with a feast he has prepared for her. Just doing her job, Sonia manages to ruin Victor’s day, confiscating all the food and even his chef’s knives.

But Sonia’s daughter, Lili-Beth (Élodie Fontaine), has been suffering bullying due to being the daughter of the unpopular border guard. Lili-Beth is determined to show her tormentors up by winning the national Mini-Chefs competition. But she cannot cook even an egg.

Naturally, then, to get the best help for her daughter, it’s Victor to whom Sonia turns.

Acted with subtlety and directed with finesse, Manon Briand’s French comedy combines several strong characters, community strengths, and the odd culinary shock to carry us gently through the conflicts and strife that arise from the collision of even reasonable zeals. Though clearly modern, the tale, with its light touch on universal human problems and the foibles of the human condition, has a charming timelessness and an appeal for all ages.