The Intouchables

2011 French movie

Rating: 16/20

Plot: A rich quadriplegic hires a troubled young guy from the hood to be his caretaker, and they become really good friends. 

I'd seen this around and avoided it because it's called The Intouchables and has a poster like the one above. Seriously, I'm supposed to want to see a movie called The Intouchables that looks like that? Then, I saw the super high rating on imdb and noted that it was currently sitting as the 38th highest-rated movie on the site and figured it was time to check it out. I'm glad I did because even though it's a little color-by-numbers with a story that could only make sense in Hollywood (it's actually based on a true story), I thought it was very well acted, often really funny, and ultimately profoundly touching. The leads are great, and I was surprised by the amount of chemistry between Francois Cluzet as the rich guy and Omar Sy as hooligan Driss. That chemistry is what made the movie, and if they wouldn't have been able to sell that relationship as the titular duo (whatever Intouchables means) to the audience, this wouldn't have worked at all. I'm not sure exactly why Driss was a black guy from some country in West Africa instead of an Algerian guy or whether or not I should care about all that. I think the directors (Olivier Nakache and Eric Toledano) just liked him, and I also thought he was extremely likable. His antics during a trip to the opera made me laugh, and I also liked watching him paint. Oh, and he's got some pretty sweet dance moves. Cluzet's performance is powerful, more powerful since he's doing it all without moving anything below his neck. I was touched by his desire for romantic love and his mostly-unspoken fondness for Driss. There's nothing fancy about this movie, and it's a better story because of it. It's just a naturally unfolding friendship that, even if you don't bother filling in all the gaps, hits you in ways that you can't help but understand. It's really a beautiful little story, and I really like it the more I think about it. Just now, I thought about early scenes where Driss is picking Cluzet's character up and later when the latter is in the passenger seat of a Masserati recklessly driven by the former. You've got to put yourself in Philippe's shoes there to fully appreciate the love and trust this scene shows us. 

My spell check is telling me that "intouchables" is not a word.