When human resources manager Catherine (Catherine Frot) is sent from Paris to the small town of Carhaix in the middle of Brittany, she has to take on a rather thankless job. She is supposed to check the local hospital for its profitability and solve the financial problems. Layoffs or the closure of entire departments are hardly avoidable. No wonder that Catherine is not exactly welcomed with open arms by the hospital staff. Nevertheless, the community quickly grows on her, especially the three friends Mathilde (Mathilde Seigner), Firmine (Firmine Richard) and Louise (Laurence Arné), who even accept Catherine as a member of their bowling team. But the friendly idyll is soon over when it is decided that Carhaix's maternity ward should be closed, which would cost Mathilde and Firmine their jobs. But the town shows tremendous cohesion in the face of these radical austerity measures and a huge protest movement is born, which Catherine would also like to join. But in doing so, she would be putting her job on the line herself. And after all, Carhaix is just a job to her - or is it more than that?
Welcome to Brittany is based on the true story of the protests against the closure of the maternity ward at Carhaix. Director Marie Castille Mention-Schaar has used real-life events as the starting point for her sometimes amusing, sometimes moving story about the friendship of four disparate women who are drawn together first by their shared passion for bowling and later by their struggle against social injustice. The actresses harmonize very well with each other, which is especially noticeable in the humorous moments of the film in a very pleasant way.
It is evident not only in the story, but in the entire production that it has its heart in the right place. Still, the film never rises above the status of just being nice. The comedic timing, for instance, is always a touch off, so that even moments that are genuinely funny in themselves never lead to hearty laughs, but merely amused smirks. Also, the potential of other nice ideas is never fully exploited and often the production meanders a bit indecisively back and forth between drama and comedy. It's nice, entertaining and diverting, to be sure. But a lasting feeling of happiness, which is quite inherent in the story, just won't happen.
For friends of light-footedly staged women's films and those viewers who have a soft spot for French social comedies with social themes, Welcome to Brittany offers enough good reasons to justify a visit to the cinema. But those hoping for more than just nice entertainment will probably return from this visit to Brittany less than impressed. Therefore applies: with deductions worth seeing!
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