The Intouchables, originally a French Film, a winner of 38 “Best Foreign Language Film award”, a movie based on true events, an intricately fabricated profound work of art, surely is a medley of sparkling humor, subtle emotions, and a deep dive into nature of human relationships. It’s truly an irresistible delight for the connoisseurs of the finest cinematic experience.
The movie revolves around the two main characters — Philippe and Driss.
Philippe, played by François Cluzet, is a millionaire, and handsome aristocrat who is deep inside a free-spirited, fast-paced, adventure-loving, energetic and humor seeking person, meets an accident while Paragliding and happens to become a quadriplegic, a person who is paralyzed right from the base of his neck to the last toe on his foot. Philippe’s life, now due to the helplessness given by quadriplegia, is limited to mostly the walls of his mansion, the routine care of doctors and caretakers and the pity of the rest of the world. In summary, he is living hell in the midst of his affluence.
Due to the consistent exposure of pity, dependence, and helplessness, he happens to devote his life to intellectual activities, arts, music, drama, literary events, and epistolary relationships (distant conversations with a person through letters only). There is a lot of insipidity in his life. His true innate energetic and adventure-loving nature is now lost, which he has now accepted as his fate.
He happens to meet and finally hires Driss, Omar Sy, as his caregiver, who is totally opposite of what Phillipe is from the outside. Driss is black west African. He is impulsive, he is uncultured, raw, reckless, violent, free-spirited, fast-paced, humorous and aimless person. He comes from one of Paris’s poor, suburban high-rise ghettoes, and is seeking some money. He has also been recent to jail for 6 months for robbing a Jewelry store.
In spite of two of them being so different, what binds them together is their total love for honesty of character, sense of humor and contempt for stuffy hypocrisy. And, most importantly, Driss is actually the outward raw and honest manifestation of the innate character of Phillipe. What Phillipe likes about Driss the most is, he treats him like a normal human being with all his arms and legs, he doesn’t pity him, he doesn’t make him realize of quadriplegia all the time and rather he makes him feel good, makes him feel lively again and makes him laugh again. The laughter which was missing in Phillipe’s life for ages. This becomes the greatest binding force in their relation.
Philipe shares that he lost his loving wife the same time he got quadriplegia and his true disability is not having to be in a wheelchair, but it’s having to be without his wife.
Driss brings taste in Phillipe’s insipid life. They both learn and grow with each other. Phillipe learns to enjoy the daily life mundane things apart from his literary and intense interests and at the same time, Driss gets more responsible and civilized in the journey!
Both of them have performed phenomenally. Their every action and expression is praiseworthy. It’s an epitome of a true and deep friendship that grips, holds and takes the spectator on an around 2 hours long journey of humor and subtle emotions.
An inevitably must watch.
My Rating: 4.5/5.
Tribulations of A Fledgling Mind 