Entertaining, but not very insightful.

Rating: 6/10 (2 April 2012)

When I first saw "Intouchables", it hadn't become the French box office hit it is now, in fact I hadn't heard of it or watched a trailer before seeing the film. Members of my family who were there with me were absolutely enchanted when we got out, but I merely shrugged.
I remember thinking, early on in the film: "It seems they sort of know what they're doing", what with the very expressive visual choices in terms of setting and photography. But as the movie went on, all traces of artistic flair were lost for good.
The characters are flat and are only here so that the audience can have a good laugh and be forced to accept the old fallacy that a movie with disabled people can only be good. Then again, I found myself smiling at various points of the movie, but I only think it is sad that the movie abandons its interesting story and social context: by the end, it does not consist of much more than a long thread of random jokes. Francois Cluzet is too distancing in the role of a jaded paraplegic, but Omar Sy makes the most of his (very) limited part. It is only through this character that the film manages to take a stand against prejudices without feeling divorced from reality or from the cinematic necessities of storytelling and character development.
Let's sum things up this way: the movie had a great beginning in which it properly introduced the world of the story, Omar Sy's performance is really engaging, and yes, the film is VERY entertaining and beautiful, but it is not realistic enough nor ready to put its many jokes in context.