Review by Maddie Minton

When entering a movie with Kevin Hart as the lead, there’s usually no surprise of what to expect: cheesy, loud, and hilarious but oftentimes lacking in the plot department. When watching “The Upside,” a whole new Hart takes center stage.

With a title like, “The Upside” I thought for sure this would be a happy movie. And even the movie poster painted this to be a lighthearted flick. WRONG. This film, directed by Neil Burger, displays all the painful sides of disability and depression. This film is an adaption of a beloved classic French film, “The Intouchables.” My main gripe with this film is not the fact that it was sad; in fact, I feel they showed a very accurate depiction of what it’s like to live as a quadriplegic. My issue is that it was a poor excuse for a remake of a beloved classic.

Hart’s character, Dell Scott, has just been released from prison and is in search of work while Brian Cranston’s character, Phillip Lacasse, is a famous author who had a horrible hang gliding accident that left him paralyzed from the neck down. Phillip is in search of a live-in caregiver and chooses Dell, who is unlike the rest of the applicants; in that Dell has no desire to help anyone but himself. These two become unlikely friends at the toughest part of their lives. The movie starts off six months into their relationship, where both Dell and Phillip are driving an expensive car away from the police. The scene ends with Dell using Phillip’s disability as an excuse to get out of fleeing the police. This is when I realized this was not going to be a comedy.

After this scene we go to a time before Dell and Phillip met. The relationship development between these two characters is slow and the movie was predictable. The wealthy Phillip in a pit of depression after a horrible accident and losing is wife. Dell is an ex-con who has baby mama drama and lacks motivation. I found myself guessing what was going to happen next throughout the whole film, and guess what? I got it all right. Any jokes that were in the film fell short in comparison to Hart’s other films and the character development was lackluster. That being said, Cranston did an amazing job playing a quadriplegic; he made your heart ache just from his facial expressions. Also, Hart delivered a convincing performance in his breakout dramatic role.

There is a turning point in the film where both Dell and Phillip have a strong (but dumb) falling-out and the pair part ways for several weeks. This fight was ridiculous and unnecessary (much like the opening cop scene). It made me question the merit of this pairs’ friendship. We spent an hour and a half watching this deep relationship come to fruition, only to have it ruined by a minor fight. If they were truly friends, you’d think there would be a bit more of an understanding between these two guys but they end up just ditching each other. This emotional part of the film and its resolution all happened within the last 30 minutes of the movie. This film is two hours start to finish and the ending still felt rushed. This last little bit of “The Upside” didn’t bring much surprise: Phillip gets the girl we knew he would within the first 20 minutes of the film, Dell becomes the father figure we knew he’d turn out to be and we see Phillip and Dell hang gliding into the sunset while the screen fades to black.

I was disappointed in the film, but the most confusing thing to me was why did they recreate a well-received movie only eight years after the previous film was released? Did they think they could do it better? Did they simply run out of ideas in Hollywood? Cranston and Hart are two fabulous actors who are beloved by fans everywhere, but this movie was definitely a fail and I couldn’t recommend anyone go watch it – just rent “The Intouchables” instead.