2011 comedy drama Les Intouchables (In English: Untouchable) is the highest grossing French film of all time and was nominated for a BAFTA, a Golden Globe and a number of other awards. After finally having the chance to watch this (originally released last year in the UK), I can see why it has caused such a positive stir in French cinema as well as film festivals across the world.
Phillipe (Francois Cluzet) is a lonely quadriplegic millionaire with a passion for the arts. Driss (Omar Sy) is unemployed and living with family in the Parisian projects. Phillipe is struggling to keep a personal carer around for more than a week or two before they quit and applicants for the position, while aplenty for obvious reasons, are incredibly dull and monotonous and sometimes just offensive. So, when Driss jumps the queue of interviewees and tells Phillipe to just sign his unemployment papers while flirtatiously asking for his assistant’s number, Phillipe is intrigued. He offers Driss a month’s trial but bets him he won’t last two weeks. Driss takes the bet and moves into Phillipe’s mansion.
Driss slowly learns how to be an adequate carer but a great friend and the heart of the film, which is based on a true story, is the connection and rapport that builds between the two leads. Driss never ignores Phillipe’s disability but is never afraid of talking or joking about it either. “He shows me no pity,” says Phillipe and this is exactly why he likes him. To call the film edgy might be pushing it but it is certainly evidence of both intelligent writing and strong acting that despite some dialogue which could have otherwise been seen as offensive, it never feels uncomfortable. “Where would you find a quadriplegic?” Driss asks Phillipe. “Where you left him”.
As a fully subtitled film, the best credit I can probably give here is that I laughed out loud more than once. There were inevitably a couple of references lost in translation but nothing that will spoil the experience (and experience this, you should). Story wise, there are a number of comparable films in the past and most won’t make you read for two hours. But while Les Intouchables does not rewrite or even necessarily change the proven formula, it is a thoroughly enjoyable, hilarious and heartfelt film, not to mention with a beautiful soundtrack from Ludovico Einaudi, that I recommend you see when it comes to DVD in February (and before the release of the English remake that is said to be in the works).
RATING: SEE IT
[Rating system: See it / See it cheap / Skip it]