The Intouchables (2011)

Magnifique! This movie about the bond between a quadriplegic French aristocrat and his caretaker from the ghetto had the packed preview house laughing hysterically and occasionally sniffling, but way more the former than the latter. Omar Sy (pronounced see, has 37 titles on his resumé, but the only one I know is Micmacs, which we loved), playing Driss the exuberant Senegalese caretaker, beat Jean Dujardin (The Artist) for the Best Actor award at the Césars (the French Oscars), for which this movie earned eight other nominations, losing to The Artist for many of them. Sy was the first black actor to win that award. Oh, and the man can dance, as he cuts loose in one scene. As Philippe, François Cluzet (profiled in Paris), beautifully displays the man's boredom and anger changing to acceptance and finally regaining his sense of humor and adventure. Philippe's apparent bottomless pockets also make it fun, with the castle he inhabits, the cars he used to drive, and the excursions he can provide. Props (ha!) to the production design and the location departments. Oh, and like Micmacs, it breaks Rule #2. No Eiffel Tower.

As a directing/screenwriting team, Olivier Nakache and Eric Toledano have worked together on three other features but I didn't see them. This will certainement put them on the map. Speaking of mixing French and English, I'm baffled as to why the distributors tacked the English word the in front of the French intouchables, which naturellement means untouchables. I leave the English preposition in place only because of my practice of using what's on imdb. It makes about as much sense as trusting wikipedia, but that's how I roll (and sometimes I make changes to imdb using the handle babetteflix). Nakache and Toledano take sole writing credit, but this is actually based on a memoir Tu as changé ma vie... (You Changed My Life) by a similar caretaker, Abdel Sellou, a white Algerian.

When we saw it last week rottentomatoes was weighing in at 77% critics/92% audiences. It's now slipped to 76% from critics. But as it moves into wider release (now in 83 theatres in this country) I expect that percentage to creep up. After nine weeks in its native France, it became the second highest grossing movie in that country, behind Bienvenue chez les Ch'tis (Welcome to the Sticks - 2008). Time will tell if it surpasses it.

The soundtrack, by an Italian, Ludovico Einaudi, is lovely, and you can listen to most of it beginning from this link, which also has some of the songs, including those by Earth Wind & Fire and Nina Simone.

Now Harvey Weinstein has optioned the story to remake it in English. I'm sure it'll be great. But you MUST SEE the original when it gets to a theatre near you! Yeah, it has subtitles. You can read. Just go.