Gérard Depardieu throws his weight around in this semi-improvised effort, cheekily titled Tour de France at home.

He plays a barely coherent suburban character—a racist, working-class lefty and Sunday painter determined to retrace the steps of an archaic seaside artist. Due to some scarcely believable plot machinations, he’s shoved together with a young Franco-Arabic rapper (played by likable, one-named Sadek), who agrees to drive the disagreeable old-timer from port to port. It’s pretty slapdash stuff, but this Tour is an easy-to-watch conversation-starter about what’s happening to the notion of national identity. It’s showing as part of a student-outreach program, so that discussion should probably address the casual homophobia and simple-minded gender attitudes that mar the tale as it winds down.