There are many feel-good movies that aren’t necessarily just comedies. Drama films blend very well with comedy, and there are several examples for this like The Fundamentals of Caring or It’s a Wonderful Life. These films range from being either enormously popular, or low-budget films only independent film fans know about. Either way, feel-good movies are something everyone should check out.
The Intouchables is the modern king when it comes to the feel-good film landscape, as its comedy-drama storytelling is magnificent. The film became a sleeper-blockbuster during its release in cinemas, grossing over $400 million worldwide, and sparking a number of remakes. The Upside is the latest such remake for The Intouchables and features an American take on it. It’s a good film in it own right, but one which felt it was necessary to bring some changes from the original move. Here are eight differences between The Intouchables and The Upside.
Different Languages
Those of you who have watched The Upside and now feel like watching The Intouchables should know this very important point: they’re both in different languages. The Upside was, of course, in English, but The Intouchables is in French.
It’s obvious why The Intouchables is in French, since the film is a French production, so you should remember to get a version of the movie that has English subtitles. It’s a good thing the original film chose to keep it in its native language, as it made the experience all the more authentic to watch. Overall, the best way to enjoy both films is to watch them in their respective languages.
Different cities
Really driving home the fact that both films are firmly entrenched in their respective country’s values is that they’re both set in iconic cities. The Intouchables takes place in Paris, which is without a doubt the most well-known city of France. Paris is also the most populous city of the country, which makes it a sister city to New York.
New York itself is the setting of The Upside. Like Paris is for France, New York is the most populous city in the United States. Both films make use of their cities as a vital theme in telling their stories; however, the experience is separate as the cultures of these cities are vastly different.
Changes in Cars
Americans seem to respond more to quality speed than simple elegance, and The Upside sought to make the car driven by Dell feel more relatable. Dell drove a Ferrari in the American film, which was shown in the first scene of the movie itself.
Likewise, the car driven by Driss was also seen in the starting scene of The Intouchables, but the brand was a Maserati – more specifically, a Maserati Quattroporte. Both cars are made by Italian manufacturers, but the Ferrari brand is more well-known in the United States compared to the Maserati, which might have been the deciding factor for The Upside to change the car manufacturer for its film.
Different Songs at the birthday party
In both films, the Philippe/Philip character has a birthday party thrown for him, which he doesn’t particularly enjoy. The songs played to commemorate his big day don’t really spell “fun”, and the Driss/Dell character takes it in his own hands to liven spirits up.
To this end, in The Intouchables, Driss changes the song to Earth, Wind & Fire’s 1979 hit song, “Boogie Wonderland”, which makes Phillipe’s birthday party one to remember. In The Upside, Dell does something similar, but switches the song instead to Bruno Mars’ “Perm” from his 2016 album. This is quite a big change in song styles, although it’s understandable why the change took place.
Role of the assistant
In perhaps the biggest change between the two films, the character of the assistant is made more important to Phillip in The Upside. Here, his assistant is played by Nicole Kidman, which might be why she is bumped up to a potential love interest role.
In The Intouchables, things are significantly different, as the assistant is nowhere near Phillipe’s love interest. How come, you ask? That would be because Phillipe’s assistant isn’t even interested in men, let alone having any chance of being in love with Phillipe. In The Upside, Philip’s epistolary love interest’s personality was changed to being someone not very welcoming of his condition; The Intouchables kept this character as his main romance.
From cousin to son
On paper, it doesn’t sound like one would look out for their cousin as much as one would toward a more direct family member, which must be why in The Upside, Dell was shown to have a young son whom he was responsible for. This was a big alteration from The Intouchables, where Driss had no son.
The Upside’s son character is also more important to Dell’s character, and shapes some decisions he makes. In The Intouchables, the son character was instead taken by a cousin of Driss’. In this story, he manages to help his younger cousin with his problems thanks to the lessons he learned while taking care of Phillipe.
Shaving scene changes
The shaving scene in The Intouchables occurs near the end of the movie, as Driss looks to raise Phillipe’s spirits up. The scene itself is responsible for bringing Phillipe out of his doldrums, as Driss makes the experience quite funny. Driss stops at regular intervals while shaving Phillipe, and lingers the longest at a joke over the dictator from World War II; this is all done in good taste, though.
In The Upside, the shaving scene remains, but the stark difference presents itself during the dialogue, which is much shorter. This is done to the point where you’d wonder if the joke was kept in just as an homage to the original and implies it doesn’t have any other significance being there.
Awkward changing scenes
The Upside plays it very American where it features a scene depicting Dell having to change Phillip’s catheter. This is played for laughs as Dell isn’t too happy with doing this kind of a job. The scene has quite a few references to the male anatomy, all of which are funny, but highlight the uneasiness Dell is in.
In The Intouchables, Driss also has problems with changing Phillipe, but these jokes aren’t strictly toward Phillipe’s anatomy. Instead, they focus more on Driss helping Phillipe shower and dress; Phillipe chooses this time to make fun of his caregiver. It seems the American version developers felt anatomy jokes would be funnier to their audience, which wasn’t exactly a wrong thought either.