A comedic look at the relationship between a wealthy man with quadriplegia and an unemployed man with a criminal record who’s hired to help him.
Neil Burger is a decent director who has made some alright flicks in the past – see the goofy thriller “Limitless” or the moderately-less-goofy magician drama, “The Illusionist.” So what compelled him to helm the misguided, by-the-numbers “The Upside”?
First, the good news. The film remarkably uncovers a subtle, poignant and, dare I say, endearing side of the marketing machine that is Kevin Hart. I was on the verge of dismissing the actor/comedian entirely, losing all hope that he was capable of producing anything that’s not branded with his own pompous logo – but in “The Upside” he sets his ego aside, providing a nuanced performance that still contains traces of his shtick, albeit reigned in and used wisely, to counterbalance all the sap and bigotry surrounding him. Another feat Neil Burger achieves is pairing him with Bryan Cranston; their unexpected chemistry sizzles, the two actors bouncing off each other like two pros on the tennis court.
Sadly, that’s where the good news ends. Literally, everything else about the film is lunkheaded, sentimental, offensive and highly unoriginal. Let’s call it what it is: complete drivel, yet another story about an unlikely friendship between a down-on-his-luck black convict and a rich white man, and the life-altering lessons they teach each other. It’s based on (read: a shot-by-shot remake of) a wildly popular 2011 French film “The Intouchables,” which, while problematic in itself, made a trillion dollars worldwide (well, almost $450 million, to be exact), stirring up cynical thoughts of a Hollywood cash-grab, milking a known property for everything it’s got.
Every beat of the story is so predictable – especially to those who have seen the original – as to render it utterly inconsequential. Nothing resonates, because from the first minute we can foresee every action, every sentence, every shot. After a tragic paragliding accident leaves him quadriplegic, rich white man Phillip (Cranston) with a golden heart (and a picky disposition) seeks an aid to help him get through life. He also happens to be a widower who mourns the loss of his wife more than the loss of his ability to move, as if the filmmakers still deemed the character too unrelatable. In comes the recently paroled convict Dell (Hart), who is saddled with a slew of all-too-familiar issues: no job, no money, child support, finger-wagging wife – again, the filmmakers flipping through the Black Man Stereotype book and shamelessly obliterating any kind of semblance to real life by flushing them all out on screen.
Phillip’s assistant and potential love interest Yvonne (Nicole Kidman) keeps asking him throughout the film why he decided to hire Dell, without getting a response. The reason is simple, but difficult for him (and the filmmakers) to voice: Rich White Man saw redemption in Poor Black Guy. Opposites attract, see. Unless you’ve never seen a Hollywood movie, you may guess what happens next. At first at (gentle) odds with each other, the duo learns to appreciate and respect one another – Poor Black Guy learns about high art, class and the importance of keeping a job, while Rich White Man gets a much-needed reminder about what truly counts in life – and it ain’t the dolla billz… or not entirely, at least. Friendship, as it turns out, is the answer to all problems – as long as it comes with a futuristic German shower and a hefty weekly paycheck. One can’t help but squirm at the scene where Phillip calls Dell intelligent, almost making him tear up – no one has called him “intelligent” before, you see. White Man Validation is all he sought all those years.
There are many such instances where the film feels like it was made in a different era, pre-#MeToo, pre-Black Lives Matter. Rejoice at the two men riding the motorized wheelchair through Central Park! Applaud their forced kindness, evoked only by their crippling circumstances! “The Upside”’s heart may rest in the right place, but when the rest of the film is so, pardon the bad pun, quadriplegic, its beat becomes too muffled to be heard. Why should we marvel at a fact that a friendship between two such direct opposites is even fathomable in 2019? “If they can be friends,” the film is saying, “so can we all.” Instead of examining the deeper historical and sociopolitical ramifications of an establishment where such differences in class and stature render social groups at odds with each other, the film simply thrusts two stereotypes together and relies on the actors’ chemistry to make it work. Nothing new or profound here.
As I mentioned, the two leads ALMOST make all of this watchable. Cranston does a sublime job delivering clunky one-liners while barely moving his neck. Hart resolutely ignores all the racial clichés thrown at him in every scene, imbuing his character with emotional resonance. Other actors don’t fare as well. Nicole Kidman, in particular, is stuck in a thankless supporting role, intoning her sentences as if one of Phillip’s dreaded catheters were stuck up her own anus. What a shameful waste of one of our most talented actresses. In a film that tries so hard to look at the bright side of things, its two leads end up being its only upside.
In theaters Friday, January 11th
