Saturday, June 23, 2012

Bros 4 Lyfe


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.