The Upside
Directed by: Neil Burger
Written by: Jon Hartmere - Based on the motion picture "Les Intouchables" by Éric Toledano and Olivier Nakache
Starring: Kevin Hart, Bryan Cranston, Nicole Kidman, Julianna Margulies, Tate Donovan, Genevieve Angelson, Aja Naomi King, Jahi Di’Allo Winston
Comedy/Drama - 125 min Reviewed by Charlie Juhl on 10 Jan 2019
Written by: Jon Hartmere - Based on the motion picture "Les Intouchables" by Éric Toledano and Olivier Nakache
Starring: Kevin Hart, Bryan Cranston, Nicole Kidman, Julianna Margulies, Tate Donovan, Genevieve Angelson, Aja Naomi King, Jahi Di’Allo Winston
Comedy/Drama - 125 min Reviewed by Charlie Juhl on 10 Jan 2019
The central relationship in Neil Burger’s The Upside is between a quadriplegic man and his life auxiliary caretaker. The caretaker must get the man out of bed in the morning, work on his muscles and joints, change his catheter, feed him, monitor his breathing – accomplish anything and everything to keep a human body going as the man confined to a wheelchair can only move his neck and head. The Upside’s twist is the caretaker is the one who navigates a sharper life-changing character arc altering his entire personality and manner of approaching life all based on his interactions with a man with near complete immobility. The tagline is as simple as “I came here to help you, but you helped me.” The second twist is the film is a buddy comedy between two classic opposites: a by-the-book, stuffy Caucasian billionaire and a morally lax, boisterous ex-con. The Upside offers nothing unique to audiences looking to laugh or enjoy the hijinks between polar opposite characters, but there is just enough chemistry between Bryan Cranston and Kevin Hart to keep the film from drowning.
The Upside is a faithful to the bone remake of a 2011 French film. The Intouchables was a global juggernaut everywhere but in the United States, even though it was nominated for a Best Foreign Film Golden Globe award. Audiences adored Omar Sy as the caretaker without a clue. When a foreign film impacts as broadly as The Intouchables did, beware the inevitable Hollywood repackaging for those Americans who refuse to read their movies. There is an instinctual distaste for film remakes. What is the point of creating a film which has already been made and what director would ever want to copy/paste from someone else’s work? I understand the studio’s motivation; it is almost guaranteed a story proven to connect with audiences will make money here too. Furthermore, most Americans will either be unaware nor care the film is a carbon copy from an original property.
The Upside is a faithful to the bone remake of a 2011 French film. The Intouchables was a global juggernaut everywhere but in the United States, even though it was nominated for a Best Foreign Film Golden Globe award. Audiences adored Omar Sy as the caretaker without a clue. When a foreign film impacts as broadly as The Intouchables did, beware the inevitable Hollywood repackaging for those Americans who refuse to read their movies. There is an instinctual distaste for film remakes. What is the point of creating a film which has already been made and what director would ever want to copy/paste from someone else’s work? I understand the studio’s motivation; it is almost guaranteed a story proven to connect with audiences will make money here too. Furthermore, most Americans will either be unaware nor care the film is a carbon copy from an original property.
Neil Burger, mostly known for the first Divergent film, Limitless, and the excellent The Illusionist, takes on the Xerox effort to produce a palatable product designed to go down easy. His two main characters both have their problems, but nothing so egregious they cannot solve it within two hours. Kevin Hart (Night School) as Dell Scott, on parole and haphazardly trying to collect signatures to show he is job-hunting, stumbles into a golden goose. Hired, mostly against his will and because he is by far the most untalented and incapable candidate for the job, as the life auxiliary for billionaire Phillip Lacasse, Dell is more likely to kill Phillip through gross negligence than care for him. Perhaps this is what Phillip wants as well since his first line to anyone after “Hello” is “Do not resuscitate me.” Not much for small talk this one.
Dell’s son gives him the cold shoulder and the kid’s mom makes it clear, “I don’t wanna see you and neither does he.” Dell is either incapable or unwilling to consistently look after his family so sit back and watch if his new job tending to a completely dependent man combined with a fine paycheck carries over to help solve Dell’s personal problems. Professionally, Dell also has a problem with Phillip’s executive manager, Yvonne (Nicole Kidman, Aquaman). Dell’s crass ineptitude and unearned confidence terrifies Yvonne as she knows full well Phillip is trying to kill himself through the hands of a fool and believes Dell is more than capable of it. I wonder if Dell’s charm will eventually soften Yvonne’s harder edges and bring her around more toward ally status.
Hopefully, the majority of The Upside’s audience will not have seen The Intouchables; therefore, they will not spend their time compare and contrasting. What may alienate some is Dell’s off-putting and at times, forced, gauche demeanor. The initial petty theft and obtrusive social skills may be explained away as a man who doesn’t want to be there in the first place. Yet, try and fathom Dell’s interaction with Phillip’s physical therapist during his first morning of work. He asks her what her boyfriend will say when she drops him for Dell. He then comments on her physical appearance for far too long with lines like, “I’m the PT.” “More like PYT.” In 2019, this scene lands will all the subtlety of an anvil falling off a roof. Later, while Dell gives Phillips a shave, he makes him look like Adolf Hitler, earning a grumble instead of a laugh.
As Dell and Phillip give and take from one another, there is a hint of a film like Green Book as the two are exposed to and try to understand one another’s culture. Dell harps on Phillip’s opera playlist but garners some chuckles later on when he takes to it. Meanwhile, Dell introduces Phillip to Aretha Franklin, which is borderline unbelievable - Phillip would already be more than aware of who Aretha Franklin was. There is some slapstick which doesn’t work either including Dell being pummeled by a top-of-the-line shower and then an overemphasis on the freedom of paragliding. The Upside is more forgettable than anything else and will fade away faster than most. The next day, I cannot remember the jokes I laughed at but, I believe I laughed heartily at a few points. Perhaps the film’s greatest sin is wasting Nicole Kidman in a role beneath her talent. There is no upside at all when Kidman takes a break from her string of challenging characters to play it safe in a mundane remake.
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