Your bag is empty.
It was inevitable that someone would finally get around to remaking the 2011 movie The Intouchables. Loosely based on a real-life incident, the French runaway smash and cultural phenomenon told the story of a newly quadriplegic, angry and cynical millionaire-widower who deliberately hires a completely unqualified but bigger-than-life black ex-con caretaker to lift, feed, shower and care for him, or better yet, speed up his death.
Too bad the American remake—starring Bryan Cranston as the depressed, fatalistic writer Phil, and Kevin Hart as wild-card parolee from the projects Dell—is such a disappointingly carbon copy-style version of the original, with all its stereotypes and old-timey racial politics left intact and unexamined by screenwriter Jon Hartmere and director Neil Burger (Divergent). Anyone who has seen an odd-couple bromantic comedy—let alone Driving Miss Daisy or Green Book—can pretty much guess where this one’s headed.
Cultured, immaculately groomed, tight-ass Phil introduces Dell—a potty-mouthed, uncouth dad who lives in public housing and keeps missing child-support payments to his ex and son—to the world of Upper East Side posh, great cars, the opera, kumquats and high-end, German-speaking shower-bath gizmos. After the usual odd-couple head-butting and calamities (there’s a long, shameless scene involving hijinks with a catheter), Dell takes to the high life, and he and Phil strike up a friendship.
Dell gets into painting. Phil gets high. Dell learns about kumquats. Phil learns about the simple joys of hot dogs. Phil brings Dell to art appreciation. Dell brings Phil to Aretha appreciation. You know the “uplifting movie” drill. But here, the superrich white guy gets to play benevolent master to his disadvantaged, wisecracking black buddy-for-hire. The uncomfortable, less-than-racially evolved dynamic curdles the frothy, crowd-pandering laughs.
The Hart-Cranston duo crackles, and they work overtime to keep the punchline-heavy dialogue and clockwork comedy bits humming.
At least the Hart-Cranston duo crackles, and they work overtime to keep the punchline-heavy dialogue and clockwork comedy bits humming. For once, Hart tones it down, and his performance, full of affection for Cranston’s grouch, is the better for it. They’re pretty much irresistible together, and they give the movie a welcome hot of tenderness.
Hovering around Buddy Comedy-land are a charming Nicole Kidman as Phil’s super-serious personal assistant, and Julianna Margulies as a potential new romance for Phil. They’re both so good, you want more of them. Especially during a traditionally slow week and month for new movies, we could surely hope for better. But let’s at least celebrate the pleasures of the terrific Kevin Hart and Bryan Cranston teamwork in the otherwise predictable The Upside.