Simon Dillon reviews this joyful, hilarious, uplifting piece of work

Untouchable

Untouchable is a charming, funny, warm-hearted French comedy/drama that could well win the Oscar for Best Foreign Film next year. Frankly, I don't think it necessarily deserves to (especially considering Danish film A Royal Affair will also be in contention), but it still had me leaving the cinema with an enormous smile on my face.

Apparently based on a true story, the plot concerns quadriplegic aristocrat Philippe (Francois Cluzet) and his relationship with new carer Driss (Omar Sy). Driss is an ex-con with a dubious past, but he and Philippe strike up an unlikely friendship that ends up changing them both for the better.

Performances are all good, both from the leads and the supporting cast (which includes the excellent Audrey Fleurot of TV series Spiral). Whilst the story might sound worthy but dull, writer/directors Oliver Nakache and Eric Toledano fill Untouchable with hilarious sequences and politically incorrect jokes which in this context don't seem inappropriate at all. This is primarily because Philippe just wants his carer to be someone who he can tell jokes to and enjoy life with. The film has its serious edges too, especially when the pasts of the respective leads are touched on, but for the most part the tone is light and redemptive - although, in the interests of fair warning, there are sexual references and a fair bit of bad language.

It's not completely without faults either. For one thing, I'm increasingly irritated by the here's-a-shot-of-the-real-people-on-the-end-credits cliché. But in the end Untouchable succeeds because it demonstrates clearly and compellingly how Philippe and Driss have everything to live for - something that cuts against the usual assisted suicide misery that typically infests these kinds of films.

All things considered; a joyful, hilarious, uplifting piece of work. CR

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