Sweet and Funny

Rating: 8/10 (19 May 2012)

It's not hard to see how Intouchables become a hit. It's a crowd pleaser in the true sense of the word; a movie that works to appeal to every sector of the audience, and uses a familiar formula that's been seen many times before. Interestingly, though, it doesn't resort to the lowest common denominator. Nakache and Toledano were clearly aware of the fact that they're not offering any new revelations, and instead focused on making the movie as entertaining, touching and effective as possible, and it works, loath as I am to admit it. The movie is fast-paced, fantastically edited, always entertaining, sitting squarely on the border between comedy and drama; the two leads, François Cluzet and Omar Sy, have perfect chemistry and make even the crudest jokes work. More impressively, they make even the most cynical viewer forget that they heard it all before.
Intouchables is, in fact, one of those precious few films I can label as 'almost perfect', in that it's impossible to point out any particular flaws. The biggest flaw, and the only reason I gave it a less than perfect rating, is simply how predictable it is. It's very easy to ignore while you're watching, but Intouchables is, in fact, a formula movie, which doesn't really have anything that new or interesting to say, and doesn't do anything that wasn't done before. That doesn't detract anything, though, from the fact that it's an excellent movie and practically impossible not to enjoy, if only because the two leads are so incredibly likable and so much fun to spend 90 minutes with.