Untouchable

(Intouchables)

A box office smash in its native France, Untouchable has shades of The King's Speech and Driving Miss Daisy in its story of a quadriplegic white millionaire given a new lease of life by his unconventional black carer.

Loosely based on a true story, Untouchable follows Phillipe(François Cluzet, Tell No One), an extremely wealthy fiftyish widower who lives with his teenage daughter Elisa in an opulently luxurious Paris apartment. Paralysed from the neck down as a result of a paragliding accident, he is looking for a new carer and, tired of the pitying attitudes he encounters from better qualified candidates, he hires the cheekily outspoken Driss (Omar Sy), a Senegalese immigrant and ex-con who has only applied for the job to ensure he keeps getting welfare payments. Thrown together both men must learn to adapt: Driss by acclimatising to his new bourgeois surroundings; Phillipe by embracing Driss' carefree and playful attitude to life.

With outstanding performances from its two immensely likable leading men, Untouchable tackles issues around attitudes to race and disability in a manner that is moving and uplifting, funny and sad. The word on the grapevine is that Untouchable now looks set to be an international hit; small wonder, then, that the remake rights have already been snapped up by Hollywood.

What the critics say

Film | guardian.co.uk

"For once, the hype is justified. This is a charming, uplifting French drama- an irreverent, humorous take on disability, closely drawn from...
Visit review