Fridae

A rich white aristocrat meets a poor black immigrant. Their lives are changed forever. If this were Hollywood, we'd be treated to something akin to Driving Miss Daisy, a feel-good film pandering to audiences seeking self-validation for their middle-of-the-road, Johnny-come-lately liberalism.

Since this is France we're talking about, the desire to reduce a story to a teachable moment about race and class is justly ignored; hilarity ensues instead. Fracois Cluzet plays Philippe, a reclusive patrician whose moroseness isn't explained by his melanin deficiency but rather as a result of a paragliding accident which left him a quadriplegic. As Driss ("short for Idriss"), Omar Sy is no wise, magical black man with a big heart but a street-smart immigrant who, despite having a natural aversion to honest work, is precisely the sort of caregiver a rich invalid requires. That is, someone who wouldn't try to smother his client with misguided sentimentality or pity, and who would be least cowed by the client's wealth or social position.

Instead of a magical heart-warming drama, what we're treated to is an all-out comedy where the poor, barely educated immigrant makes a series of increasingly politically incorrect jokes to cheer up the morose invalid, who gradually begins to take a more positive outlook in his life. Handicapped people, women, race, class, culture, the welfare system — nothing is too sacred to be mocked here. And apparently, the more outré and tasteless the jokes, the more the invalid is reminded about the preciousness of human life. Go figure. On paper, the premise is hard to swallow but the flawless execution makes this issue go away.

Compared to Hollywood's comic offerings, these rather wicked jokes more often than not find their mark. What's more surprising is the fine acting by Francois Cluzet, the amiable charisma of Omar Sy, and their onscreen chemistry, which elevates this seemingly genre comedy to greater heights than one would expect. It's difficult to believe that the cure to existential depression is a dose of acidic, take no prisoners humour but this film sells the point well.