gimmedacash

I've known of this movie for a long time but never got around to watching it. The story didn't appeal to me as I am not a fan of dramas and even though I am Francophone, I rarely watch movies that are not in English. But after watching a few scenes on YouTube, I decided to give it a shot and I was blown away. The story itself is nothing special on paper, rich white man meets poor black man, poor black man helps rich white man and they become friends despite their differences. What makes this movie special is three factors: acting, chemistry and subtlety.

Acting is self-explanatory. Both Omar Sy and François Cluzet are fantastic in their respective roles. Omar Sy especially just radiates off the screen and delivers a fantastic performance. He is kind, but not a pushover, he is strong and will use force but only up to a certain degree, he has flaws but he is extremely likeable. As for François Cluzet, he doesn't make the mistake of falling into the trap of being either too angry, too reclusive or trying to lay in on to gather pity. This is also true of their chemistry on screen. You truly believe these two men are becoming close friends and that relationship grows before our very eyes. This movie wouldn't work without that chemistry, and it's what drives the plot forward. If you just read this screenplay, it wouldn't really be as effective. The casting is on point and Omar and François are fantastic together.

Subtlety is a big strength of this movie. Never does it try to make you feel bad for Philippe or Driss. We are shown their pain, Philippe of losing his wife and losing his ability to move and Driss of being an immigrant in a foreign land with a large family and a strained relationship with his adoptive mother. The relationship between Philippe and Driss also grows slowly. There's not one single moment where everything changes. The love these two men have for each other feels earned and Driss' eventual move out is not a big blow-up, it's just a small human moment where circumstances change. The score is not overused, the direction is not heavy handed and it helps the movie's message feel more realistic.

The movie is clearly better if you understand French but I think even with subtitles, it's worth a watch.

I watched Intouchables (2011) for the first time and then watched the remake right after. I went into this movie with an open mind, I knew there was no way they could capture the magic of the original, after all Omar Sy isn't in this movie, but I figured maybe they'd be able to spin the story a bit differently. I found the movie to be quite bland and boring, lacking much of the nuances and the charm of Intouchables. Kevin Hart is extremely miscast in this role. He does a fine job with what's given to him but this is clearly not in his wheelhouse. The chemistry with Bryan Cranston just isn't there, it never feels like the friendship is genuine or that either man grow or change throughout the movie. Bryan Cranston's Phillip is also much meaner, angrier and with a darker edge than his French counterpart. The movie tries to recreate some of the classic scenes of the original, like the birthday party and the shaving scenes, but it just doesn't click as well. I also felt Nicole Kidman's love interest character was not needed. Intouchables does have a small romantic subplot but it keeps the story focused on Driss and Philippe. This movie tries so hard to tug at your heartstrings and make you feel bad for its' leads but neither of them are very likeable or interesting people. While Intouchables uses a subtle and nuanced approach to its' more dramatic elements, this film uses a sledgehammer to make its' point. As a standalone movie, it's not really interesting, original or very entertaining. This story works in Intouchables because of the amazing chemistry, the direction and the score that is used to enhance scenes, but all of this is lost in The Upside. Just go watch Intouchables instead, it's the same story but done a million times better.

Whatever happened to storytelling? That's the question that I was left asking myself after wasting time watching this movie. Yes, the gore scenes are plenty and creative, but the problem is that not once can you feel any kind of sympathy for people you don't know anything about. The so-called "love story" is a rushed into the first 2 minutes of the film and does nothing to help character development. The film shows absolutely nothing worth watching, even as a gore-hound I was left not caring that much about the torture scenes. This movie gave me no reason to care about any of it's characters of their story, it just relied on gore to shock me and I found that cheap and got more angry about losing precious time on this than on the gore itself. This movie is about torture, torture of it's audience that is.