It doesn't make any sense. This relatively average (and arguably not good at all) French movie, which chronicles the friendship between a poor black man and a rich white man and is based on the true story of Philippe Pozzo di Borgo and his French-Algerian caregiver Abdel Sellou, is a load of old tosh. Seriously: it's just about the most pandering, patronising "feel good" movie ever made - it's truly remarkable that the world actually fell in love with it. The Intouchables (not to be confused with the very similarly-sounding Kevin Costner movie in which he hunts down Al Capone) settles to be a "really nice film" that people can relax into and just enjoy - kind of like The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel. But in and amongst all the humdrum plot points you get the sense that it was made as award fodder; it isn't complex or intelligent in the slightest. As a result, watching it is actually kind of insulting. God knows what it's doing positioned as the 39th best movie on the IMDb - it's not even the 10,000th best movie ever. What a truly weird motion picture to find itself so far up the list.
Sam Hill is an ardent cinephile and has been writing about film professionally since 2008. He harbours a particular fondness for western and sci-fi movies.
