What a pleasant surprise

Rating: 10/10 (14 March 2013)

I think that it is wise to not expect much from movies or know a great deal about them before watching them. I did not expect this movie to be great but it was. I usually like movies where the characters express themselves fully and are genuine. The two leads are men which makes it a 'Bro' affair. Omar Sy has put in a strong performance. The movie was a pleasure to watch, moved along steadily addressing the core issue with care yet in a manner that is lighthearted and cheerful. The core issue here being that of a life a quadriplegic lives.
From someone who is a lively and an energetic individual, one becomes confined to a wheelchair and with a prospect of never being able to feel the way that he did before. A very scary prospect indeed. The last thing a person would probably want in such a scenario is the notion of excessive pity from everyone else. The movie deals with the same. It is hard to understand that feeling of helplessness without actually experiencing it even the notion of it is painful to bear. It is very important to understand that the disabled people are just rather unfortunate folks who are trying their best to make do with what they have. To act like a pain in the ass for them and be non supportive is probably one of the more ill deeds that one can do. There is some sort of a stigma attached to them in my mind. It has probably to do with the fact that seeing them evokes a painful emotion in me, one that I do not wish to give much thought to or protract. I guess, now that I think about it, I have that with anything even vaguely related to the hospital. Not the most cheerful of places.
I was expecting a watershed moment in the movie somewhere after which the drama would take over but thankfully that never came. The movie ended on a cheerful note, which for a change, was nice to watch. The story is not a novel one and based on a true incident but the depiction and the acting in the movie make it a likable affair. Nina Simone's Feeling Good and the whole sequence featuring it was probably the most moving part of the movie, Driss's dance scene being the other one. Ludovico Einaudi's Fly being another brilliant soundtrack, overall, a nice movie.