Based on a true story, “The Intouchables” arrives trailing allegations of racism from some critics. It concerns a rich, white quadriplegic (François Cluzet) and how he gains a new appreciation for the joys of life via his caregiver, a poor ex-con named Driss. For his performance as Driss, Omar Sy became the first black actor to win a César, the French equivalent of an Oscar.
The real-life man Sy plays is Algerian, but Sy’s background is Senegalese, and that’s what’s causing some winces — such as when a white character tells Driss that his suit makes him look like Barack Obama, whom Sy resembles about as much as Cluzet does.
But this essentially good-natured movie, a massive hit in France, is more likely to strike American audiences as trite than offensive. From “It Happened One Night” to “Trading Places,” it’s yet another entry in the category of “rich people need ordinary folks to show them how to live it up.”
Cluzet, while fine, is saddled with a comparatively dull character. And the script doesn’t give Sy a moment we haven’t seen a version of before, whether he’s hitting on the pretty secretary or sitting at his mother’s table with a sullen face meant to conceal his remorse.
But Sy, possessed of phenomenal charisma and an acting range that belies the clichés, seizes the screen. Whatever the fate of “The Intouchables” in this country, he’s a star.