Quadriplegics don’t get a whole lotta love on film. I suspect many quadriplegics don’t get a whole lotta love, period, but that’s another issue. It’s tough making action happen when your main character has neither use of arms nor legs. Luckily, this is an American remake, so there’s always a wise-cracking sidekick.
Dell Scott (Kevin Hart) didn’t sign up for this gig. In fact, all he wanted was some “I attest that this dude is genuinely looking for a job” signatures to satisfy his parole officer. And while exploring a janitorial position in a fancy high-rise, he accidentally hits upon an audition for life service auxiliary and nails it! By “nails it!” I, of course, mean he shows neither aptitude, nor desire for the position in question, which makes him a welcome relief to his new boss, extremely wealthy quadriplegic Phillip Lacasse (Bryan Cranston).
Look, I know having a pulse and a plucky attitude must have been all the rage for job seekers in previous centuries. We are now in 2019. Ok 2017, when this was filmed. Still. The only place right now where someone can show zero aptitude for the position in question and still get the job is the Trump White House. In this century, everywhere else people actually work, they gotta demonstrate some skillz beforehand. Nowhere is this more apparent than when Dell reports bright and early to take the immobile Phillip from bed-to-chair and feed him breakfast. After the physical part, all Dell has to do is show he cares, and he doesn’t. And the camera plays this to comic effect, while real life caretakers recoil in horror. The position of reason is occupied by Phillip’s personal assistant, Yvonne (Nicole Kidman), who tries to convince us she knows baseball by giving Dell “3 strikes.” BTW, you want to convince folks you know baseball? You’ll want to lose any trace of a UK or Australian accent.
Of course, the whole point of The Upside is to discount the voice of reason and demonstrate that strange as the relationship is between the multi-millionaire stiff and the less-than-refined ex-jailbird, they are great for one another. This friendship will bring out the best in both men. Sure, the ice breaker is Dell scoring drugs for he and his new boss, which speaks to a number of disturbing prejudices, but it’s cute when wheelchair-confined man on weed orders 15 hot dogs, right?
It’s hard not to like Cranston and Hart, and I think they work well together. You can see how much “heart” Kevin has put into genuine acting in this screenplay; it falters most when Kevin reverts to his stand-up routine in order to save a scene. I can live with all that, even if it’s a far cry from the chemistry demonstrated between Omar Sy and François Cluzet in the superior version of this film, The Intouchables. Unrealistic as it might have been for Phillip to hire Dell on the spot, what bugged me about The Upside had nothing to do with Dell and Phillip coming around to one another.
My objections to this version are tow-fold: 1) There’s a disturbing strain of white savior-ism in The Upside. There’s no question than Phillip and Yvonne both see Dell as a rehabilitation outreach project. The entire idea is to get Dell to embrace the culture of white elites and accept it as his newly unreachable goal. 2) An idea that might not have bugged me until a few years ago, The Upside definitely espouses an undeniable feeling that wealth equals moral superiority. I used to think this was just an attitude professed by wealthy people to justify their terrible behavior, but then President Trump happened and we all suddenly realized this is a serious issue. I know, white people, how wonderful it is to embrace Calvinism, but there ain’t a whiff of truth to it. In fact, whenever wealth and moral or spiritual superiority do mingle, they’re more often at odds than dance partners, dig?
My bottom line here is if you like the idea of two very disparate fellows turning an adverse work relationship into a close friendship, go find The Intouchables. Please. It’s a much better, and –dare I say- spiritually superior version of the same film.
♪I remember just last night
Your catheter, it wasn’t right
A shadow of man
Just face and a widow
Scowling in the light
The bright exposes
Morning, time for your buffet
What the Hell, “curds and whey?”
Breakfast I despise
I spy the therapist
I never realized
How happy, oops I missed, Oh Handi
Well you stayed without straying two inches
And I might care today, oh Handi
Yeah your checks, they stopped me from break-ins
And you need me today, oh Handi♫
Rated PG-13, 126 Minutes
Director: Neil Burger
Writer: Jon Hartmere
Genre: Pandering
Type of being most likely to enjoy this film: Kevin Hart fans
Type of being least likely to enjoy this film: Bigots
♪ Parody Inspired by “Mandy”
