The type of movie Eddie Murphy might have starred in in the 80s, perhaps with Dustin Hoffman.

Rating: 7/10 (17 January 2013)

'THE INTOUCHABLES': Three and a Half Stars (Out of Five)
A French comedy-drama film that has become the third biggest foreign film and biggest foreign language film of all time. It's also received rave reviews and a great deal of award recognition, but no 2012 Academy Award nomination (due to the fact that the foreign language division was afraid it would win). The film is beloved the world over but perhaps just a little over-hyped. It's a good movie but it is clichéd and somewhat simple and unoriginal. It's been criticized for being another tale that revolves around rich white people being enlightened and finding happiness through poor black people. It does seem like the type of movie Eddie Murphy might have starred in in the 80s, perhaps with Dustin Hoffman (because the lead white actor in the film bares a striking resemblance to Dustin Hoffman).
The film stars Francois Cluzet as an aristocrat, named Philippe, who was paralyzed in a paragliding accident. He's somewhat depressed and has lost most communication with his adopted daughter Elisa (Alba Gaia Kraghede Bellugi). He also has phantom pains which keep him up at night and still mourns the death of his wife greatly, who died before they could have any kids of their own. He maintains romantic relationships with women only through written letters and fears actually meeting or speaking with them. One day he's looking for a new caretaker and a man named Driss (Omar Sy) enters his home just looking for a signature so he can continue to collect welfare checks. Driss lives with his large family in a small flat in a Parisian suburb. So when Philippe actually does offer him a job as well as a room in his mansion, that has it's own large bathtub in it, it's quite a culture shock for him. Of course Philippe is inspired by Driss and both men's lives are forever changed.
The film was written and directed by Olivier Nakache and Eric Toledano. It is nicely directed and looks beautiful. It also has a nice combination of both comedy and drama and both elements are done well. It's just that the film isn't that funny or that emotionally moving. The performances are fine, it has some good laughs and it's a good well intentioned story but it's nothing we haven't seen before and far from anything spectacular. It's enormous success does puzzle me a little but I'd much rather see a movie like this do really well than something like 'TWILIGHT'. So it's definitely a decent crowd-pleasing film, just not a great one.
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