Cheerful, Snappy Movie Marred by Glitzy Milieu

Rating: 6/10 (2 March 2013)

This has to be one of the least-demanding movies on the viewer -- aside from sexual allusions, a 6-year-old would likely be able to understand what the movie is all about. The two lead actors (especially Omar Sy) give nice performances, but nothing really surprising is happening in the course of the movie, and it is only moderately funny. The finest thing about the movie is its ending: despite being entirely predictable, it manages to be genuinely moving. The second-best thing about the movie is its visual splendor: not just Paris in all its (aristocratic) glory, but the countryside, the mountains and woodlands (and spectacularly paragliding over them), the sea and the beach. There is something worrisome and kitschy about the plot, however: it stars an immensely wealthy quadriplegic. I admit I'm not really interested in watching movies about quadriplegics, including those who are not well-to-do, but for the entire duration of the movie, I couldn't get that question out of my mind: "Why make a movie about a quadriplegic, but make him immensely rich as well? Why not make a *poor* quadriplegic, or a quadriplegic of ordinary means, the star of the movie? Would there be anyone to take care of *him*?" In this sense, one might detect a measure of cruelty about the movie -- in that in portraying the life of a quadriplegic, it picked one who definitely will not represent the typical quadriplegics from around the world. The movie's "love angle" can, for the same reason, be perceived as cynical, too: would a perfectly attractive and young-looking woman be taking an interest in a middle-aged quadriplegic, meeting him for a romantic rendezvous at the seaside, had he not been as rich as he is? One of the movie's ironies is that the character played by Omar Sy actually says this out loud (and *really* loud) when the two friends are sitting in the opera house: that women aren't looking for charming, handsome men as much as for those men who are wealthy and able to provide security for them. Well, that certainly lends a sour aftertaste to the love story -- but perhaps this was intended by the story's authors, and they are poking fun at themselves in this way. All in all, an OK movie, but insanely overpraised.