Cecile is getting married. In Greece. But she’s French. So her long divorced and deeply acrimonious parents are flying in to attend. Then the Icelandic volcano Eyjafjallajokull blows its top and all flights are grounded for just long enough to manufacture a situation in which these two can be forced to travel together in a variety of modes of transportations ranging from hired car, to bus, to mobile church, to stolen police car, to light plane, to fishing boat. Ever more cramped, ever more stressed and ever more contrived.
For the film’s title refers not to the geographic phenomenon grounding planes but rather to the building pressure between Alain (Dany Boon) a driving instructor and Valerie (Valerie Bonneton) a vet, who had a child when they were young and plausible. Now older, more caricatured and far less capable of any action that might in any way endear them to the audience, they just attack each other in ever more unimaginative ways.
Sadly this “disaster comedy” is about as funny as an argument in a car at the start of a very long trip. There is great potential for humour in tales of odd couples bound together on Ulysses-like journeys of ever-increasing obstacles, however there must be some heart to the story, some shred of likeability to the players, some desire in the audience for them to reach their destination.
None of those elements made it through Customs at the first airport in this film. As this pair set out, one relative quickly opts out of joining them for the ride, predicting what is to come. Audiences would be wise to follow his lead.
