The Intouchables

A comedy built on contrasts of the characters’ respective natures and the setting and which more or less just mulls over the idea of also being a social drama. The film outright plays it safe. The plot is regularly livened up with minor conflicts and the montage sequences prevent it from becoming too slow and boring so as not to repel viewers. The comedic lightening-up of the situation only occasionally gets out of control (the dance scene resembling a music video) and disrupts the pleasant cruising on the surface of harmless images. It’s still unrivalled as a cure for crises of all types. 75% (07/06/2012)

The best French film I've ever seen (though admittedly I haven't seen many of them). Comedy and drama in one, each component properly balanced. At the end of the film I was completely satisfied, happy, and moved. I saw the film without knowing what I was getting into, without looking at the ratings on FilmBooster, so I was very surprised to find it so well rated. A nice non-exploitative human drama with all the aspects of humanity that only these two can have. P.S.: I almost peed myself laughing at the beard shaving. (02/04/2012)

An excellent, superbly dramatic, and well-crafted film about real life among paraplegics and similarly disabled individuals. Philippe belongs to that fraction of the population who can afford to live in a castle with plenty of staff, and in such an environment, paralysis is much more bearable than languishing in an institution with burnt-out staff who make it abundantly clear how much your mere physical existence irritates them, and who keep you perpetually in a state of miserable survival. However, such a truthful film would not offer so much heartwarming humor, interesting situations, and appealing characters. The mutual chemistry between caregiver Driss, a black plebeian from the outskirts, and the aristocratic upper-class Philippe is simply perfect and fully functional. The film not only explores the development of a great friendship but also interestingly tackles the clash of different cultures, social classes, and the eternal conflict between the so-called high elite culture and the popular culture of the masses. The Intouchables excellently fulfills both genres it represents. You laugh at these characters and at the same time, you are afraid for them. There is one thing more I need to criticize - the film's epilogue is unnecessarily literal, and here, I would have left a more or less open ending and room for the viewer's imagination. Overall impression: 90%. (14/06/2012)

There's a lack of insight, so it remains a very briskly shot and brilliantly humorous comedy. The French pulled their punches, fudged the script and avoided the clichéd philosophising in luminous Paris and classic gritty street stories. Intouchables is a fresh ride full of emotions and spontaneous improvisation of the main characters, without pathos and sentimentality. It's not reality, but neither is it beyond reality. A hit about right in the middle, with the heart in the right place. (30/07/2016)

A pleasant dramatic comedy with likeable protagonists that here and there delivers some dark and incorrect jokes, but that in the end is nothing but your typical feel-good fairytale with a humanistic message, or a film that is in no way exceptional. And that’s why it has received so much attention, because its exceptionality cannot piss anyone off. It's just so generally likeable. 7/10 (10/03/2012)