Review: The Upside

The film becomes overrun by an increasingly preachy and tiresome series of life lessons about race, class, and love.

The Upside
Photo: STX Entertainment

A bland and blunt remake of the 2011 French crowd-pleaser The Intouchables, director Neil Burger’s The Upside revisits one of Hollywood’s most aggravatingly persistent tropes: the multi-racial odd couple. Pairing Bryan Cranston with Kevin Hart, the film coasts on the amiability and restrained charms of the pair as filthy rich paraplegic Phillip Lacasse (Cranston) introduces ex-con Dell Scott (Hart) to the world of opera, fine art, and expensive cars from the confines of his wheelchair.

The two actors mine a few genuinely funny moments out of Jon Hartmere’s tepid, cliché-ridden screenplay, thanks primarily to Cranston’s endlessly expressive visage and Hart’s mostly subdued performance. But as soon as Dell adjusts to his role of Phillip’s life auxiliary—a live-in position which leaves him at his employer’s beck and call 24/7—The Upside becomes overrun by an increasingly preachy and tiresome series of life lessons about race, class, and love, each as hollow and lacking in insight as the next.

The central narrative strives to blend humor and pathos but fails to generate much of either, as its observations on the culture clash between Phillip and Dell are so superficial that the two men rarely function as anything beyond their racial and class-based stereotypes. When Phillip forces opera upon Dell, the latter hits back by pushing Aretha Franklin on his employer. When their talk shifts to art, Dell bristles at the thought of Phillip dropping $80k on a painting of “squares.” And, predictably, the film is peppered with jokes about Dell’s lack of sophistication, ranging from his not knowing what a kumquat is to a painfully extended sequence of various catheter-based physical humor where Dell can’t even bring himself to say “penis” aloud.

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The Upside isn’t quite as problematic in its racial politics as Bruce Beresford’s Driving Miss Daisy, but it too often succumbs to broad, condescending comedy, more frequently at the expense of Dell, as a means of illustrating the divide between the two men. As time goes on, Phillip and Dell naturally warm up to one another, with Dell taking to Puccini while Phillip discovers the joys of marijuana. But their relationship becomes pigeon-holed by incessant teaching moments, like Phillip learning to make himself vulnerable again and Dell discovering how to become a more responsible parent and partner. And the film’s meager subplots do little to alleviate the oft-moralizing tone of the scenes that solely focus on Phillip and Dell.

The love triangle between Phillip’s loyal assistant, Yvonne (a surprisingly listless Nicole Kidman), and a mysterious stranger, Lily (Julianna Margulies), with whom the millionaire shares an intimate epistolary relationship, is developed so late in the game that Yvonne’s pining for him barely registers. And Dell’s personal drama with his ex (Aja Naomi King) and son (Jahi Di’Allo Winston) is even more muted, following the all-too-familiar trajectory of a selfish, immature man learning the value of caring for those who depend on you. That such hackneyed plot devices are couched in a played-out tale of a poor black man proving his worth to white America by embracing a servile status only causes The Upside to feel as arcane as it is tedious.

Score: 
 Cast: Bryan Cranston, Kevin Hart, Nicole Kidman, Julianna Margulies, Golshifteh Farahani, Tate Donovan, Genevieve Angelson, Aja Naomi King, Amara Karan, Jahi Di'Allo Winston  Director: Neil Burger  Screenwriter: Jon Hartmere  Distributor: STX Entertainment  Running Time: 125 min  Rating: PG-13  Year: 2017  Buy: Video, Soundtrack, Book

Derek Smith

Derek Smith's writing has appeared in Tiny Mix Tapes, Apollo Guide, and Cinematic Reflections.

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