"The Upside" I Tried My Best

 

    As a fan of The Intouchables, I tried, and I do mean I tried really hard to enjoy The Upside, but I just couldn't bring myself to watching it. I mean everything about it just felt like a poor mans copy that captures none of the charm and fails to make up for it in any other way. Now, I understand trying to make a movie that captures American sensibilities, but frankly all it manages to capture are its worst tropes. Like, I mean no disrespect to Kevin Hart, but I never quite understood him, and frankly it doesn't help that Bryan Cranston's character, Phillip seems disinterested in everything 90% of the time, so he really only acts in a few couple scenes.

    I mean, the first film I could easily get through, it was a consumable 1 hour 52 minute piece about the indomitable human spirit and the bond that can form despite the background, and this movie is a 2 hour slog fest that just feels like everyone is going through the motions. I mean you could hardly even call it a positive movie, it just sort of ends abruptly, there's no heartfelt moment, there's no tension or buildup of the relationship between Dell and Phillip, it all just feels so forced.

    There's no chemistry, and even the first scene, which is a recreation of the opening scene of the original movie you can tell you're in for a different movie. Now, there's nothing wrong with having a different tone, or putting your own spin on an already established idea, but when you remove what people loved about a film you have to be ready to replace it with something, anything, which this film fails to do. I mean even off the bat the chemistry felt off, and just in general in terms of palette I felt as if it was less colourful.

    To be fair, it is a tall task to fill in Omar Sy's shoes, and sadly Kevin Hart fails to put his own spin on the character of Dell, and frankly instead of being the laidback almost naïve character genuinely trying to learn he just comes off as a rude with a lot of forced humour. The same could be said for Bryan Cranston, who as I said previously just feels disinterested most of the time. There's no gradual buildup, nothing subtle that's left to the imagination about this film, Phillip literally magically falls in love with Dell and hires him.

    Not to mention, the times when it tries to put its own spin on things it really doesn't go anywhere. Personally, I thought that them showing flashbacks was unnecessary, because one of the good things I found about The Untouchables was how it was about learning to live in the now and moving on, The Upsides shows glimpses of the past, but really does nothing with them, making the dreams have little substance. Furthermore, the scene where Dell and Phillip yell at each other and start breaking things genuinely made me cringe for a moment. I don't know what they were going for with the scene, but even after it was done I could feel the second hand embarassment.

    Frankly, I don't even think the actors know what this film wants to do, there are hints of racism, and frankly Cranston's actor starts to feel a little racist near the climax of the film of all things when he starts to spew those nasty things about Dell, and it serves no purpose. All that's left in the place of the charm and chemistry between the original two actors is some moments where they get "real high" and buy a bunch of hot dogs.

   In place of the comedy you get such forced moments where Dell struggles to use a German shower, and frankly the fact that this film is allowed to call itself a remake of The Untouchables. Moreover, why did they change so many of the relationship dynamics? I'm not quite sure what they're trying to do between Yvonne and Phillip, and giving Dell a son does nothing for his character, as he never even wraps up that arc, because buying his family a house apparently is enough to fix everything.

    Don't even get me started on the fact that he randomly starts up his own highly successful company? That is also conveniently about making motorized wheelchairs? I mean his expertise on engineering is touched oh so briefly in the middle of a montage, and it just makes everything feel so forced, which is a common thread that appears throughout this film. No where in The Pursuit of Happyness did it show Will Smith's character actually finding success, and it didn't need to, so why did The Upsides feel the need to?

Final Score: 45/100

    Need I say more about this film? It's a mediocre remake that fails to capture anything that made The Intouchables so successful in the first place. Say what you will about some stereotypical tropes or what made the original uncomfortable, but I doubt you'll find any remedy buried underneath whatever you call this movie. Frankly, I find it hard to even find a reason to watch it, I'd much rather you watch the original with a dub if you hate subtitles just that much, the story will be much better I promise you that.