Slap Her, She's French!

Deep in the heart of Texas, Starla Grady (McGregor), belle of Splendona high, is proud never to have crossed the state line. With a beauty pageant title at stake, however, she agrees to host a French exchange student, 'in the spirit of global warming'. The catch is that Genevieve LePlouff (Perabo) is concealing devious intentions beneath her beret, not to mention a quiver-load of double entendres. Jolly xenophobia remains a Hollywood staple, but this comedy is notable for taking most of its digs at American dumb insularity. 'Drowned in the river Seine,' responds a classmate to one of Genevieve's sob stories. 'That's, like, sooo Titanic!' McGregor has a talent for camp comedy, looking quite unhinged from the start and supplying the voice-over narration in an appropriately nasal twang, but on the whole this is very standard fare.