Refreshing, entertaining and frank.

Rating: 9/10 (9 February 2013)

So many movies and TV programmes involving disabled characters are saccharine and patronising in an effort to inspire or hammer home a message of triumph over adversity. Not so the Intouchables. This movie finally gives an honest portrait of disabled man, at once gruesome and humbling, while keeping the focus firmly on his relationship with his carer instead of dwelling on his disability. Indeed this is a story as much about overcoming class divide as it is about overcoming physical disability.
Down and out Driss, part of Paris's disenfranchised and unemployed black youth, applies for a position as millionaire quadriplegic Phillipe's carer in order to get a signature for his jobseeker's benefit. Phillipe, appreciating the young man's honesty and frank attitude towards his condition, hires Driss and simultaneously resolves the Driss's poverty and his own boredom.
The genius of this film, in spite of its dark subject matter and themes of disability, class and race, is that it is genuinely hilarious. Omar Sy as the no holds barred Driss oozes cool and yet is heartbreakingly affectionate towards Francois Cluzet's Phillipe.
I laughed and cried in equal measure - what more can you ask?