The Upside

So most of the time, January is a pretty weak time for movies. Typically, its seen as a dumping grounds for movies that studios don't think would make money in more popular times of the year, or where you put movies that weren't strong enough to make it into the Christmas movie watching season. You can expect some people to go see it because let's be real, its January, what else are you gonna do? Go outside?

But honestly, the weird thing is, this year there might be some exceptions to that stereotype. I totally forgot that Glass came out in January (perhaps that should have been a sign to us all), and this movie came out. I realized the time that the movie came out the day before I saw it and I worried that it might not be good.

The Upside is a story that has been done a couple time in movie form. Apparently its based off a true story but I can't believe that after so many remakes the story remains still in tact. The most famous one before this one is called The Intouchables. It is a French film and while I haven't seen it, I'm pretty sure I could find a copy of it somewhere. The Upside makes me want to and compare the two. We'll see if that happens, but my point is that I'm curious how similar the story is with the two movies, with the rest of the remakes, and how close it is to this apparent true story.

The Upside follows the story of Dell (played by Kevin Hart). He is an ex-convict who is looking for a job. My accident, he stumbles into an interview to be a life auxiliary for a paraplegic billionaire by the name of Phillip Lacasse (played by Bryan Cranston). Phillip takes a liking to Dell and against the advice of his Executive Assistant (played by Nicole Kidman) offers him the job to do the things that Phillip cannot do in his condition.

Predictably, the two get to know one another and form a friendship. They uncover each others passions, push each other better themselves, and they just enjoy life together in a pretty comedic story.

And the first thing to say about this film is that the performances are really good.

 This movie would not work if you didn't like the main characters and they got a pretty awesome cast for this movie. I was actually a little surprised on how well Kevin Hart acted in this movie. He's usually the goofy comic relief or in comedies that rely more on the laughs rather than the heart but I really liked him in this role. It was written pretty well to work for him. You also can't complain about Nicole Kidman, she's a good actress. Her part is a little odd but I'll talk about that later.

And then you have Bryan Cranston who definitely goes into my top five best actors working today. He's really good in this film.

Now there was a "big" controversy over an abled actor like Cranston being cast as a disabled person and why they didn't cast a disabled person. I don't wanna get too much into it. I am putting a link to a BBC article discussing the controversy as well as Trevor Noah making commentary on it. I think it's an interesting debate but that's not really what I use this blog for. Bottom line is, they used Cranston and they got a really good result. Does there need to be a conversation about opportunity for disabled actors, yes. Is casting an incredible actor like Cranston a controversy? I really don't think so. Read the article, listen to Noah's commentary, decide for yourself.

BBC Article
Trevor Noah Commentary

The real pleasure of this movie was the interplay between Hart and Cranston. I think the movie was just able to put a smile on my face through the majority of it, whether it be through the comedy which was really good, the heart and chemistry between these two, or after a really emotional scene where either one performed really well.

The issues that I had with the film aren't really that big of issues because I don't feel like they really bring down the movie. The main problem is that the plot is overall pretty predictable. This kind of movie has been done about a billion and two times so its not surprising when they have a falling out, kind of out of nowhere or the plot resolves itself perfectly with a little bow on it. This would bother me more if the predictability of the movie felt contrived, but I really only felt that one time and that was during the predictable falling out the two have. I guess you could consider that a spoiler but there was only one time that I knew that part was coming and it happened with no real reason or motivation. I think if I would have changed anything, it would be to have that falling out happen over time and utilize the two hour time frame a little better to facilitate that predictable format in a less predictable way.

I also think Nicole Kidman's character wasn't really that consistent and really changed depending on where the plot needed her instead of the way her character would naturally progress. Again, she's not bad, she's just more of a plot device instead of a real fleshed out character which is unfortunate because there is one scene where they talk a little bit about her as a character and I'm sure they could have done more with that, but for me it wasn't as smooth as the development of Hart and Cranston's characters.

Overall, The Upside is a feel good movie. It's not gonna win any awards and if I could do it again, I'd probably wait until this comes to a streaming service to watch it, but I'm not mad that I went to it in theaters. If you need a pick me up, this is a movie that will do that. Yes it's predictable, but not every movie is going to, nor should they be, a groundbreaking one hundred percent original film. This movie has been remade a billion times because its a touching story and there's nothing wrong with that.

But those are my thoughts on The Upside. What did you think? Comment and Discuss below! You can also send me your thoughts on Twitter @MovieSymposium as well as send me your requests for films I should review in the future. If you follow me on Twitter, you can get updates on future movie news and reviews coming out of this blog.

Thanks for reading!