Warning: this is more of an emotional and personal review.
It may cause tears but it probably won’t.
There comes a time in my everyday life when I’m willing to offer my whole attention to a movie – usually it means that I’m focused enough to read subtitles! I know it may sound a bit crazy and lazy, but I stopped reading subtitles in a very early age when it came to movies that had English as an audio. I was around 10-11 years old (and I checked this fact with my mom and she agreed) when my parents noticed that I wasn’t paying attention to the TV anymore – they asked if I could understand what was going on, and I translated some of the lines from the movie without looking at the screen. I’m not bragging, honestly, I just wanted to explain that my comfort with English has sort of guided me through life and now I have to really push myself towards a foreign (non-English) movie.
What an introduction to my review, a childhood story that serves no actual point in the review but I guess it was just nice to share something about myself. Now on to the movie that caught my eye, or technically my ears, when I was in Tallinn last week – two of my friends recommended me this movie in two separate occasions. Usually I pass these things up, like I said I’m a bit lazy when it comes to subtitles, but I remembered my last foreign experience and I thought I’d give it a go. Movie in question is The Intouchables (2011) – a masterpiece from French about an odd friendship that has made it to the top 250 in IMDb.
I might be over selling it a bit too much when I say it’s a masterpiece but there is something special about a movie that can make you cry and laugh at the same time. Some might disagree on the matter just because they find it to be offensive, for reasons I’m not willing to touch ground with, so all I’m gonna say is that it has a life-like quality I enjoyed. For me, not only did the writers, Olivier Nakache and Eric Toledano, who also directed the movie, capture the true story The Intouchables is based on (this really happened!) but the actors made me believe in their relationship. So basically, the movie was a masterpiece because it was utterly realistic and here’s another interesting thought I just had. Does any of you sometimes think that the belief in a role is dependent on the knowing-factor: if you are familiar with the actor you might not be as convinced by him/her in a role but if you haven’t encountered them before, like in my case with The Intouchables, you automatically believe them a bit more. Well, whatever the case is, I thought Francois Cluzet and Omar Sy portrayed their parts remarkably.
By the end of the movie emotions have run wild with this one, as I said, it will make you cry while you laugh, and laugh while you cry. The saddest effect the movie actually had on me was the fact that it made me miss friendship. It may sound a bit emo when I say I haven’t experienced friendship in a while but it’s just the cold reality of my lonely (filled with blogging) summer. All my good friends are either in a different city or out of the country and I miss that feeling of spending time with a friend. The Intouchables had that bitter sweetness to its funny moments because one of the characters was paralyzed from neck down. While I couldn’t help to feel sorry for him, I envied him as well, because he found a caretaker who became somebody he trusted, who he considered as a friend and who treated him as a person rather than a disability. It’s obvious by the plot but I’m gonna tell it anyways – there’s a lesson of life hidden in The Intouchables. It’s not the lesson about treating people equally or seeing good in people who don’t look the part (both obvious things anyone should learn from The Intouchables), it’s knowing that there is always room to
celebrate life!
Your opening paragraph was great, it’s nice to learn a little bit about the person behind the blog. I wish I was more comfortable sharing personal stories like that in my reviews.
I did enjoy it, but I didn’t love this one as much as you, maybe I’ve seen too many movies, but I thought it was manipulative and formulaic. The editing and the pacing felt like any other popular comedy released in recent years. Not enough real dialog or natural flow. Just a string of gags and setups, designed to force laughter or tears. Which isn’t inherently bad, just not very original.
The acting was excellent though. Cluzet and Sy had fantastic chemistry, and were very entertaining to watch. I was surprised at first when I heard that Sy beat Dujardin for best actor in France, but when I actually saw the film, I understood why. That was the perfect role for him.
Anyways, great review! I’m pleased that you found a movie (with subtitles) that you loved. Hopefully this has energized an interest for you to discover more of them.
Well you do have to consider the circumstances person watches the movie. Me, alone at home, no friend near by might really enjoy friendship on the screen.
And maybe it was the French that didn’t feel like forced comedy of any kind.. reading subtitles really makes it difficult to think about the joke so much if you have to keep reading.
But you know, people like different things because of those reasons and many more which is great because we’d be all boring otherwise.
PS: Glad you liked the personal story. I have a feeling that my future posts will have the same kind of “here’s my personal story” type of things going on. I feel very opened this time of the year.