Critic Reviews

Enjoy this movie for what it is - the kind of motion picture that can cause Champaign-like giddiness - and don't obsess over how true-to-life this work of fiction is.

Let me come clean right now and tell you that I enjoyed The Intouchables quite a bit. If you're looking for a lightweight summer change of pace, with just a smidgen of Continental flair, here it is.

It has warmth, humor and an understated sweetness that is not to be taken for granted.

The Intouchables is an exuberantly charming French buddy comedy that proves an audience will suspend disbelief and follow an unlikely story as long as it's superbly crafted.

The Intouchables works as a crowd-pleaser not because it's true, but because it's a plausible enchantment.

It's the kind of movie that inspires word-of-mouth recommendations by speaking the international language of culture clash.

The film fulfills its feel-good promise, as long as it's seen as the fairy tale it was meant to be.

Not a great film but a warm one that pushes the viewer's emotional buttons so deftly it feels like a massage. My guess is that you will laugh and cry at all appropriate moments. Resistance is futile.

There are plenty of reasons not to like The Intouchables, but Omar Sy's terrific performance blows right past them.

What it provides (instead of the thematically clever dialogue of typically subtle French comedy) is biting wit, poignancy and, forsaking some structural nuisances, the summer's best bromance.