Pun Salad

The IMDB raters have have (as I type) The Intouchables at #61 in the list of the Top 250 Movies Of All Time. Yeah, I don't think so. But it's not bad.

Also (according to IMDB) it is "the most successful French film in German cinema history." And you know how much Germans like French stuff. It is based on a true story.

The plot is what TV Tropes calls the Odd Couple. The "Oscar" is Driss, a young black man living in France, on the edge of a mean-streets life of crime, drugs, and homelessness. In order to get French unemployment benefits, he has to at least pretend to look for a job; this sends him to the house of Philippe (or "Felix"), a rich parapelegic widower who needs a caregiver.

Philippe's world is dry, antiseptic, humorless, and boring. Driss would be totally out of place. Of course, he is hired; Philippe appreciates his total lack of pity. There are all sorts of conflicts, mostly handled humorously: Philippe loves art and classical music. Driss is more into Kool and the Gang, and Earth Wind and Fire. But (you know this is coming) their odd chemistry manages to develop in ways that saves them both.

I have no idea what the title refers to. French intouchables translates to "untouchables" in English, according to Google Translate. But there's no Eliot Ness.