The Upside

Neil Burger’s film is the third remake of The Intouchables, after India’s Oopiri and Argentina’s Inseparables, both 2016. An English version had circulated since 2011. At one stage Paul Feig was to write and direct, Colin Firth was Philip, and Chris Rock, Jamie Foxx and Idris Elba were up for Dell. Burger took over in 2016 and shot a Jon Hartmere script rather than Feig’s. The story is set in New York but was filmed in Philadelphia in January 2017. The MPAA first gave it an R, trimmed down by Burger and the producers to a PG-13. It screened in Toronto in September 2017, then sat on the shelf: the rights changed hands and it reached cinemas only in January 2019, Lantern Entertainment’s first release. It opened to 20.4 million dollars, ending Aquaman’s three-week run on top. Critics were cool; audiences graded it A on CinemaScore. The bargain the plot starts from is not what it looks like: Philip hands Dell the job expecting his incompetence to kill him, a point the British board also flags. A good fit if you want that darker arrangement kept in view beneath the friendship scenes. Not for viewers troubled by a paralysed character played by a non-disabled actor; Bryan Cranston granted the debate was worth having and said disabled performers need more opportunities.