Click here for the review of The Intouchables

SPOILERS must be tagged with the "SPOILER" tag!

Wow, I am slightly surprised by this review. What do you say to those critics who have criticized that this film relies too much on stereotypes and features the cliche of the wealthy white person finding himself in the company of a minority from a lower class. I think some people have gone so far as to call the film racist.

James's is right on this review. I couldn't agree more. I highly recommend it and make your own opinion

I saw this a few months ago and definitely concur with James' review. I highly recommend it.

There are people who are bound and determined to find racism everywhere they look. The charges of racism leveled against THE INTOUCHABLES are because the race of the real-life caregiver was changed for the movie. (In real life, he's Middle Eastern not African - there's a picture of him at the end.) The story isn't about race or class. It's about two very different people connecting, and you can't get much different that a rich white guy and a black guy from the streets.

I agree almost 100% with James's opinion here, the only minor correction is that the real life caregiver (Abdel Sellou ) was Algerian. still African from the projects and was in prison but not black , you can see the real life characters (Abdel Sellou and Philippe Pozzo di Borgo) in the picture below



Again the movie is very entertaining and certainly deserves a look to make your own opinion

Cheers

Suppose a film is based on reality to some extent. To what extent must the race, sexual orientation, gender, height, weight etc of the characters in the film correspond to reality to avoid someone claiming that it is racist, sexist etc?

What about the name? "Les Intouchables" is the original name, which translates as "The Untouchables". While it is clear that using a direct translation would cause confusion with another film of the same name, the title chosen, a French word which is not an English word and an English article, doesn't seem to be an enlightened title.

James noted that the film might have been designed with a non-French audience in mind. In France, Algerian people in many ways play the same role as Blacks elsewhere (or Turks in Germany or Brazilians in Ireland or Portuguese in Luxembourg), so by NOT changing the race of the character some connotations (which would certainly be perceived in France with an Algerian character) might have been, to use Isaac Asimov's phrase (look it up), "lost in non-translation".

the film is inspired by a true story discovered by the directors in a 2004 documentary film entitled "A la vie, a la mort"

I did not find The Intouchable racist, I do not want to spoil the movie for you but I found the character of Abdel very likeable and the actor who played was great and even won an acting award in France beating the other major actor in this and other films. The movie is not about race but about two different people connecting

Again the movie is very entertaining and James's wrote in his review: it is full of little inspirational moments, but if you want to know the real story then better to watch the documentary

Yes, I might check this movie out. It is good to see that there isn't a consensus on the alleged racism in this movie.

I saw this movie a few months ago when it stormed the German box office by surprise. I'm yet to meet anybody who didn't like it, but I did have a major reservations, because it is a very predictable and formulaic inspirational movie and it is also very manipulative, i.e. tugging at the audience's heartstrings too obviously. That being said, the movie is so well-made and well-acted (particularly by Omar Sy) that I liked it even despite of my misgivings.

Concerning the alleged racism by changing the ethnicity of the "Driss" character from North African to Sub-Saharan African - I wouldn't be suprised if they just correctly identified that Omar Sy was the best actor to play Driss and changed the character accordingly, just like the changed some other major points of the story to make it more cinematic. In France, French of Algerian descent and of sub-Saharan African descent often share very similar social problems and the change in ethnicity doesn't affect the story at all.

Agree with this 100%. Omar Sy really made the film work, despite the movie's obvious manipulation. It worked because it all seemed natural and not forced manipulation, if that makes any sense.

I saw it with German subtitles (a rarity, since movies in Germany or more usually dubbed), and the translation was great (well, the German was great, I don't speak French, so don't know about the translation ). From James' review, I am guessing the English subtitles work equally as well.

We've gotten very lucky with limited release movies here in the KC area recently. Last weekend we saw Moonrise Kingdom and Safety Not Guaranteed at our local AMC Megaplex, and now I discovered Intouchables playing at a little one-screen independent theater on the other side of town.

It was wonderful. I loved nearly every minute of it--easily one of my favorites of the year so far. I find charges of racism or "magic Negro" plotting to be ridiculous. I thought it even rose above any real stereotyping, but that may be because it was set in a foreign (to me) country, and so I didn't quite recognize these people as "types." To me, these seemed like two very sharply drawn characters brought to life by two incredible performances..

Really, it's just a delight--from start to finish. I laughed out loud more than I have at any straight-out "comedy" in the last several years (and any movie overall since Avengers). Also, a surprising amount of U.S. pop culture references, which were fun to see approached from the outside. I'd say by far my favorite moment was the opening credits--pure joy. Really, a wonderful time at the movies.

EDIT: Reading through some other reviews out there, I'm surprised to see the word "cringe" used so much. I found none--literally, none--of the comedy cringe-inducing, and usually my cringe-o-meter is pretty sensitive. Maybe I was in an unusually fantastic mood going in or something, but I don't think so. I think I was just ready and willing to be entertained. And Intouchables certainly did the trick.

Amen. See this movie, if you can find it near you.