The Intouchables

A film set in Paris and adapted from a real story. Philippe is wealthy and paralysed from the neck down. Since a paragliding accident he has been in a wheelchair and is constantly looking for carers. Driss is not looking for work. He wants a signature on a form to keep his benefit, and that is the only reason he attends the interview. Philippe hires him. The reason is plain: Driss does not pity him. From there the film is a story of adjustment. The house, the medication, the night shifts, the bathroom, an evening at the opera, a birthday party and a car. What the narrative is interested in is not disability but treatment: everyone around Philippe is soft, careful and distant with him; Driss makes jokes at his expense and that is exactly why it works. Driss's own life is inside the narrative too. A flat in the suburbs, a crowded family, and the road his younger brother is taking. The tone is mostly comic. The film shows the illness and the care in detail but almost never tries to make you cry. The source is real. Philippe Pozzo di Borgo wrote his memoir, and his actual carer, Abdel Sellou, was of Algerian origin; in the film the character was made Senegalese. The production took an extraordinary amount at the French box office and became one of the country's most watched films. Omar Sy won a César for the part. The sharpest criticism came from some American publications, which found the way the relationship is constructed stereotyped. Olivier Nakache and Éric Toledano directed. Who it is for: anyone who wants a warm, fast, well-played two-hander. Who it is not for: anyone expecting the subject taken seriously; the narrative keeps escaping into jokes, deliberately.