The Intouchables

I watched The Intouchables on an evening when I wanted something light.

The film made me laugh, which was expected.

What I did not expect was to leave thinking about dignity.

Philippe requires assistance with almost every physical part of daily life. That fact organizes the people around him. They become professional, careful and courteous.

Sometimes too courteous.

Driss arrives without the correct training and, more importantly, without the correct reverence. He jokes, argues, becomes impatient and treats Philippe as a man whose disability is real but not exhaustive.

That distinction is the heart of the film for me.

Care can accidentally shrink a person into the list of care they require.

Medication.

Schedule.

Mobility.

Risk.

Procedure.

All necessary.

None a personality.

I once visited an elderly relative in a hospital and noticed how conversations changed when a nurse entered. Everyone began speaking about him while standing beside him: medication, appetite, sleep, discharge.

Eventually he said, “I’m still here.”

Nobody had intended to exclude him.

That was what made the sentence uncomfortable.

The Intouchables reminded me of that moment.

Driss restores ordinary social risk. Philippe is allowed to be teased, annoyed, contradicted and encouraged toward experiences other people consider impractical.

This does not mean pretending limitation does not exist.

It means refusing to let limitation become biography.

The friendship works because neither man is transformed into the other’s inspirational device. They can be selfish, funny, difficult and wrong.

That is a form of equality.

People sometimes become overly gentle around vulnerability, as if ordinary humor might break something. The intention is kindness. The result can be distance.

Laughter can restore participation.

The paragliding sequence expresses the film’s idea clearly. Philippe’s physical condition creates real constraints. Driss does not respond by making the world smaller than those constraints require.

He looks for another route into experience.

Adaptation is different from surrender.

When the film ended, my immediate reaction was uncomplicated: I felt better than when it began.

The later effect was more useful.

Helping someone is not only doing tasks they cannot do.

It may also mean protecting the parts of life that are easy to erase once care becomes professional.

Choice.

Embarrassment.

Desire.

Bad jokes.

Risk.

The right to remain more complicated than the problem everyone can see.