The Intouchables
Angelika Film Center, June 8, 2012
Movie #21 for 2012
Phillipe (FRANCOIS CLUZET) is a super-rich paralyzed
white guy who, depsite having it all, is scared and a little dead on the
inside. Driss (OMAR SY, pictured, right with Cluzet) is a poor
black guy who, despite having very little, is very much alive. When massively unqualified Driss
applies to be Phillipe’s carer so he can be knocked back and then get
unemployment benefits, Phillipe sees something in the young man and hires him
regardless. They learn to trust
each other and eventually they become solid bros.
What a seriously boring and stale plot,
amirite? If it was an American
movie is would be a cloying, eye-rolling train wreck of emotional manipulation. But this is a French film and, against
all odds in the plot department, is somehow engaging, funny and touching. I blame the performances - and Sy and
Cluzet are genuinely interesting actors and keep their characters, for the most
part, out of the mawkish and sentimental.
Yes, it is a feel good movie (ugh), but it
also has a French sensibility rather than a Hollywood one, and that keeps it
from being, well, awful, basically.
