The Intouchables [2011] (French): A Friendship can define your life

The movie begins with a black guy is driving a car. Besides him sits a white guy. As they wait at a traffic signal, the Black guy suddenly breaks the lane and speeds off almost breaking the signal. The powerful engines whine as the car - a cool Maserati - picks up speed. The two men look at each other and smile. The car veers this way and that dodging other cars at breakneck speed as it hurtles away through the night on the streets of Paris. Of course, they are soon being chased by the traffic police. The black driver challenges the white guy that he can loose the police in no time. He almost makes it. But then the police finally cut him off. They make him come out of the car, but before they can apprehend him, he claims that the reason for him to drive so fast was because he was taking the white guy to Hospital. He is a quadriplegic and is having a stroke. The white guy for his part pretends that he is spasming... The police quickly release him and escort them to the Hospital, as the two friends share a hearty laugh at their expense.

Flash back to an interview. Candidates are sitting in a line. All immaculately dressed in formals. All except one. A black guy dressed in jeans, T-Shirt, jacket and sports shoes. He is Driss, the driver mentioned above - a poor unemployed young fellow. The interview is being conducted for hiring a caretaker for Philippe (the white guy in the above mentioned scene) - a rich white quadriplegic widower. Driss is not looking for employment. He is just looking for a signature claiming that he tried for a job but failed, thus making him eligible for government benefit. And he makes no effort to hide the fact. To his surprise and chagrin, Driss is offered the job... He has no choice but to accept. For he has been recently asked to leave home by his angry mother. 

How did Driss survive the job taking care of the often moody Philippe? How did Philippe put up with this cocky unorthodox fellow who had no reservations to speaking out his mind? How did these two men from such diverse background become friends?

This is the story of Intouchables, a movie that became the second biggest box office hit in France. Its a comedy-drama based on a true story. A story of a rich quadriplegic who learns to hope, to enjoy to live life from his cocky, unorthodox, but full-of-life caretaker. And above all, gains a life long friend who will change his life forever.

The story is well-edited. The movie never looses pace. The script is well-crafted. The dialogue flows smoothly, never appearing awkward or contrived (at least the English subtitles didn't). The visuals as well as the dialogue manage to convey the story gracefully. The witty sparring between Philippe and Driss adds the spice to it all.

The best part of the movie is the acting. Both the lead actors - François Cluzet playing Philippe and Omar Sy portraying Driss, have acted extremely well. Especially François Cluzet - for it is no easy task to act as a quadriplegic. His acting skills are evident in his ability to convey emotions with his face alone - especially his eyes. The other actors have acted well too.

Some critics (excepts the french of course) were not very impressed by this movie, questioning what the fuss was all about? In a way I agree with them. For though it is based on a true story, some parts of it do feel contrived, which may be a let down for some who might expect more realism from it. And yet, therein lies its charm. It entertains with its lighthearted comedy. The quips that often flow between Philippe and Driss makes one laugh out loud. (This one reminds me of a similar movie "The Bucket List" - another favourite of mine). We are allowed a peek into the lives, the pains, the happy and sad memories of these two men from vastly different backgrounds. Its a feel good movie that manages to spread a happy glow as you watch and cheer the victory of life over disability and hope over despair. But above all it celebrates Friendship - a friendship that knows no bounds, that transcends beyond the boundaries of race, class or physical disability...

Mostly funny, but at times tender and serious, its a good movie that I am sure to watch and enjoy many more times.

My Ratings: 3

The International [2009] (English): The difference between truth and fiction - fiction has to make sense

"This is the very essence of the banking industry... to make us all, whether we be nations or individuals... slaves to debt."

Words of wisdom. Uttered by a man in high places, a man who has inside knowledge of the machinations of big financial institutions... Soon after uttering these words, the man, an Italian presidential candidate dies. He is assassinated in broad daylight, in front of hundreds of people, while giving a speech.

He is not the first casualty in the movie The International. And he won't be the last...

The first casualty takes places five minutes into the movie - right in front of the eyes of the lead protagonist. And the movie never looses its grip from that point on...

The lead protagonist mentioned above is one Louis Salinger, an Interpol agent, who is assisting Eleanor Whitman, an Assistant District Attorney from Manhattan, in investigating money laundering and malpractice done by the International Bank of Business and Credit (IBBC). But they lose their lead witness, and the death toll rises, and soon they realize that they are up against a very formidable foe. A big international corporation with access to virtually unlimited funds wields power enough to twist any evidence, make witnesses disappear and "buy" friends at the highest places. As they try to uncover more and more evidence, their investigation keeps hitting inaccessible walls. Will they succeed in pinning down the corrupt bank and its unscrupulous officials?

The well-edited story moves at a break-neck pace. The action and the chase sequences are very well-executed. Kudos to the director and the photography crew for depicting some pretty cool action scenes. Instead of the shaky blurred camerawork used to depict intense action, they employ well placed cameras and aerial views to depict much of the actions scenes, making them look quite elegant. The shootout scene that takes place within the Guggenheim museum, (though preposterous) is especially breath-taking. (It is claimed that they built a life-size replica of the actual museum for this.) The film does not flinch from showing blood and violence wherever necessary. The story threatens to take a decidedly vigilante turn at the end, but fortunately wraps up well. The climax is unexpected but realistic, though its a bit of a letdown after the pretty impressive built-up of the entire story...

The basic premise of the story may sound a bit preposterous, but the related Wikipedia article claims that "the film draws on a number of macabre incidents from international banking". It successfully depicts the ugly underbelly of the big financial corporations and how they manipulate governments, facts and situations to suit their own needs.

Some of the dialogues are quite well-scripted. One of my most favourites is this one: "We cannot control the things Life does to us. They are done before you know it, and once they are done... they make you do other things... until at last, everything comes between you... and the man you wanted to be."

Clive Owen plays the disillusioned, disgruntled protagonist quite well - especially with his impassive face, vacant eyes and his almost perpetual part-confused, part-contemptuous expression (Though his acting is not really that good, such roles do suit him quite well I think). Others have acted okay too. Most of the characters a shallow and two-dimensional, but they suit the story well. Any attempt to sketch the characters further would have made this essentially action flick cumbersome and slow. But there is one character I found most interesting - that of an antagonist - a former stasi colonel named Wexler, who has been depicted pretty nicely, and well-performed by the German actor Armin Mueller-Stahl.

There are some negative reviews for this movie, some of which claim that it "is undone by its preposterous plot"... I find that statement preposterous. For the film's plot is certainly less preposterous than so many other commercial action movies out there that receive such great accolades from the reviewers... And I do agree, that to a certain extent, certain aspects of the plot are a bit preposterous. (For instance the sequence where Whitman slips Salinger out of police custody undetected is utterly naive) Yet, the real value of this movie lies in its attempt to convey the idea that it is not the politicians, the world leaders, the governments and armies that move the world. It is the big financial corporations, working silently at the backstage, that unscrupulously manipulate the world we live in - for their own benefit... This does sound a bit farfetched and paranoid. But then, it is after all merely a work of fiction, isn't it?...

There is one more dialogue in the movie which I liked a lot: "This is the difference between truth and fiction... Fiction has to make sense."... Hmm, I wonder...

My Ratings: 3

Elysium [2013] (English): "This isn't science fiction. This is today. This is now."

In the late 21st century Earth was diseased, polluted, and vastly over-populated.

(The camera shows over-crowded, garbage-riddled, crumbling dirty cities with smoke-filled skylines)

Earth's wealthiest residents fled the planet to preserve their way of life.

(This is where the camera pans out moving away from Earth and focusing over a massive ring shaped structure orbiting the planet Earth... This is...) 

ELYSIUM...

(Supported by a star shaped spike structure that extends from a central core to the the massive ring. The inside of the massive ring made up of huge curving landscapes consisting of beautiful grassy lawns, huge white houses and sparkling water bodies. A virtual paradise compared to the hell that earth has become...)

So starts Elysium. An artificial space habitat built by the "have"s, to keep away the "have-not"s and still enjoy the best that money and technology can offer. Sterile air, open beautiful spaces, Robot servants and Medical technology that can "re-atomize" your body to heal any and every disease or injury within minutes...

And there is the Earth. The abode of the "have-not"s. Congested, over-populated, polluted. Tightly controlled by robot police, and many of the population serving the companies that enrich the "have"s who are the Elysium citizens, even the basic necessities like medical care are hard to come by. The squalor and the living conditions are clearly apparent in the garbage-riddled landscape, the crumbling buildings where people live, the over-crowded hospitals and public places...

One such have-not is Max. As a kid he has always dreamed of buying a ticket to the beautiful and fabled paradise of Elysium. Once involved in criminal activities during his early youth, now he works hard as an assembly worker in Armadyne Corp, an armaments company that provides not only the weaponry for Elysium and the police force on earth, but also designed the controlling system of Elysium itself. One day he meets with an accident while at work. Exposed to lethal dose of radiation, he has mere five days to live. And all the company gives him as compensation is a vial of capsules that would make his final days painless, and relieves him of work.

The only thing that can save him is a Med-bay - a near magical technological marvel that can re-atomize your body cells and cure any disease within minutes. The only med-bays available are on Elysium. So he approaches a smuggler named Spider, for whom he has worked before, hoping to get himself smuggled into Elysium. But Spider asks him to perform a last job for him. A job so daring and dangerous, that no person in his right mind would take it up. But Max would. He is going to die anyway. What has he got to loose? They plan to steal secret information off a high-profile Elysium citizen, and use it to buy their way into Elysium. But they land up obtaining information that's so confidential that soon they are being man-hunted for it...

The movie succeeds pretty nicely as an action flick. Though it starts off slow, it soon picks up pace and hardly ever slackens thereafter. Some slow motion action shots are quite breathtaking. Though it is not your run of the mill action flick that starts off with a bang and involves superheroes and over-the-top action sequences, it does offer some nice sci-fi action eye-candy - some pretty cool futuristic armaments, fighter droids, and some very good action sequences.

Most of the actors have acted pretty well. Which was to be expected considering that the star-cast boasts such brilliant actors like Matt Damon, Jodie Foster, Alice Braga and William Fichtner.

But I liked this movie more for its concept. There are few sci-fi movies that succeed to present ideas that are possible in the foreseeable future. To make you realize with horror and trepidation that - "OMG, this may happen; it may really happen in a few years"... (One such movie I had seen before is Repo Men [2010] - another dystopian sci-fi action flick). Elysium is one such movie. If you look beyond the action and the sci-fi entertainment it offers, you may realize that what has been portrayed in the movie may very-well happen in the near future. The way our population is growing exponentially, and the economic divide between the haves and the have-nots widening every day, the day is not far when we might be thrust into just such an exploitative dystopian social structure... Maybe we already are living in such an exploitative economic system - economic slaves enriching the already rich "haves". The over-population will simply make it worse in the the near-future... 

The writer and director Neill Blomkamp says that it is a comment on the contemporary human condition. "Everybody wants to ask me lately about my predictions for the future," he says, "No, no, no. This isn't science fiction. This is today. This is now."... In a way, he is right...

My Ratings: 3.5