Pretty Best Friends

No matter if it's uncomfortable and gloomy outside or if the sun is shining, you can actually always use a real feel-good movie. A perfect example of a movie that just makes you happy and leaves the viewer with a big smile on their face as they go back to reality is Pretty Best Friends. The film was the most successful comedy of 2011 in its native France for a reason.

Based on a true story, Pretty Best Friends tells of unemployed Driss (Omar Sy), who has just been released from prison and really just needs an application stamp to be able to collect unemployment benefits. But when he introduces himself as a nurse to the heavily wealthy aristocrat Philippe (Francois Cluzet) with his open and not exactly polite manner, Driss arouses the man's curiosity, who is paralyzed from the neck down. Spontaneously, Philippe hires the man and gives him two weeks to prove himself in his new job. At first, Driss performs his duties reluctantly and more poorly than he should. But little by little he takes a liking to the regular life and even builds up something like a friendship with Philippe. But then his past threatens to catch up with him again and destroy his new life right away, even before it has really begun...

Directors Eric Toledano and Olivier Nakache have dressed this beautiful story about a more than unusual male friendship in an almost perfect garment. With a mixture of good comedic timing, well-measured drama and great emotions far from kitsch that seems too forced, the true experiences of the paralyzed Philippe Pozzo di Borgo and Abel, a man from the suburbs, were transformed into an enchanting cinematic fairy tale. The fact that Philippe's fate in particular is not approached with false sentimentality here, but also provides the basis for some wonderfully biting dialogue between the aristocrat and the very direct Driss, is very refreshing and contributes greatly to the film's success.

But the element that is crucial to making Pretty Best Friends so wonderful is the interplay between Francois Cluzet (Little True Lies) and Omar Sy. Both men deliver great performances in their own right. Cluzet is as impressive as a paraplegic aristocrat as Sy is charming as an articulate welfare recipient. His attempts to seduce Philip's attractive assistant Magalie (Audrey Fleurot) or his impromptu dance routine at a rather stiff dinner party are heartbreakingly funny. But it is only together that the two actors create a chemistry that makes this unusual friendship not only believable, but downright palpable.

It is also pleasing that the more dramatic aspects of Driss's environment are mentioned and also play an important role, but are not cannibalized to give the film any more social poignancy. The story is completely focused on the friendship between Philippe and Driss, and even if the whole thing seems a bit thick in the end, it doesn't harm the positive overall picture at all. The film exudes such an infectious kind of joie de vivre that it's impossible to escape the charm and endearment of the story and its characters. It's a film that makes you laugh out loud and sob quietly, simply spreading positive feelings that will linger with the viewer for a long time to come. It's hard to imagine a better start to the new cinema year. Absolutely worth seeing!!!

An article by Frankfurt-Tipp