They found each other by chance, and by chance they decided to... you know... like that other movie!

Rating: 6/10 (25 June 2012)

There's nothing wrong with the meaning of the story. Nothing wrong in wanting to write and direct a well-meant story with some positive messages in it, as opposed to the gritty, dark and negative themes explored by most film-makers, nowadays. I just think it's such an old fashioned topic, there's so many more movies that explore the same kind of relationship, and better movies at that too, that this one comes across as clichéd, predictable and extremely cheesy. A movie like this would have worked for me when I was 10, not now. In the year 2012 it looks like an outdated commercial for tolerance, which, yes, is a delicate subject, but I just don't need such a childish approach to it so that I can understand it. I knew all about it already. And the film-maker should have known that. Infantilizing the characters to make them more enjoyable wasn't, in my opinion, a move that did the film any good at all, as it detracted from the sheer emotional power that it could have had, had the leads been less clownish. In this light, this movie shares the same fault as another french-spoken movie, "L'Hutieme Jour" (The Eighth Day), which also deals with the same kind of subjects (acceptance, tolerance, mutual respect, etc... between people of different backgrounds and different chances), and which also ultimately fails to be 100% convincing because of the goofiness of some scenes, which are put there only for the sake of lighthearted fun.
Many people found this movie to be ambiguously dealing with the subject of racial difference. I didn't see that at all. I watched the movie not caring at all about which one of the characters was rich or poor, or what color their skin was, and I still thought the movie wasn't anything special at all. I mean, is there still anyone out there who cares about that? And, even if someone does, how can they say this movie's racist?? It's a collection of clichés which have been taught to us since the beginning of time, it's very formulaic and extremely predictable.
In all the technical department, though, this film excels in the true meaning of the word. It has very nice shots throughout, beautiful photography and some amazing dialog, on top of A-list acting from all the main characters. Nevertheless, even though I couldn't exactly predict how the story would end, I had this feeling like I saw it all already. To be honest, halfway through the movie, I predicted that one of the characters would die, making the other very sad. That didn't happen, but all that came before I was able to predict almost to the letter. Scene by scene by scene, I've seen it already. It looked like a movie from the 60's revisited and re-shot to look like it's brand new.
It took ages for the movie to catch my full attention, mostly because in the very beginning there's the higher concentration of clichés. Everything looked and sounded like I'd seen it a million times already. In the middle, a lot of nonsense, funny at times, but still nonsense. And in the end, nothing happens. Nothing we didn't know already, at least, 1 hour earlier. The characters don't even develop at all. Actually, they regress quite a bit. They're kinda interesting in the beginning. In their first meeting, I got the idea that their relationship would really cause sparks to fly, which I thought might be a very good idea to make the story interesting. At about 15 minutes into the movie, instead, when Driss starts working at Philippe, he suddenly transforms from streetwise rogue into a clown, while Philippe, amused by his partner's transformation, adds the word "funny" to the cynical wise-cracker with a golden heart that he already was. That's about it, and it all happens just like that, no questions asked. They just tolerate each other's ways from second one. Then Driss leaves, Philippe gets sad and grumpy and stops shaving. Nothing gradually changes, which would have been much more intriguing. And that's it!
Secondary characters like Yvonne and Philippe's daughter) and her useless ex-boyfriend) are there just to fill the screen, and I doubt anyone would care if they're still there or not in the next 15 minutes, or wonder what happened to them at the end of the movie. Did you? Sure, some of them were funny at times, but who cares if they're funny if they don't help the story at all? Also the motivations of some of these characters aren't explained or explored at all. They're just seen behaving in a certain way because it looks cool in the movie, cause the director can then add another sketch to boost the running time (the redundant scenes with Philippe's daughter and her boyfriend, or the dumb-ass sky-diving sequence, or the pointlessness of the car chase scene), but it's not really clear why they do so, nor is it vital for the viewer to know.
The leads are great actors, that's for sure. They do an amazing job and they're both very likable. There's some real funny sketches (the one with Philippe getting his beard shaved by Driss, for example) and some very mean jokes ("Where can you find a quadriplegic?") which make the movie much more enjoyable. Also the camera-work and direction are flawless: we get some amazing aerial shots and some fine editing work, on top of a stunning photography, a rare thing to find in movies nowadays, in my opinion. All in all, not a bad movie, only criminally overrated and over-hyped and NOWHERE NEAR the true art-house french cinema that real directors/storytellers like Truffaut got us accustomed to.
Intouchables: 6\10