Intouchables
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Intouchables: rm– (In French with subtitles) It may be hard to believe that you can watch a movie about Phillippe (Francois Cluzot), a quadriplegic man who can’t move his arms or legs and come away feeling optimistic about life and his future. The story is about this but more about a relationship between a very wealthy man who became completely incapacitated in an accident and in his search for a caretaker encounters a most unlikely person, Driss (Omary Sy). They become buddies and this becomes one of the best buddy films that has been around in a long time. You get a sense of where Driss is coming from – low income overcrowded housing in some adopted family arrangement and Phillppe – a deceased wife, a big beautiful mansion and very likely old money. It would have been nice to have a little bit more back story on each of them but the universality of two people being able to understand and care about each other makes this movie work. Speaking of rising above it all, there is one such scene in the movie which is worth the price of admission. It is a magnificent paragliding experience where we join the characters as they soar above above a beautiful countryside with mountains and valleys. It is not a only a metaphor for this story but a reminder how we often get caught up in the details and neglect the big picture. Don’t neglect this one. (2012)