The Upside: When Will America Stop Ripping Off Foreign Cinema?

So, I just finished watching the trailer for an upcoming film called The Upside, scheduled to be released in January 2019. Starring Bryan Cranston, Kevin Hart, and Nicole Kidman, it’s an upcoming comedy drama following the true story about a wealthy paraplegic who hires an unemployed man with a criminal history to help him in his day to day life.

It looked pretty good for a trailer, but I had one small problem with it: it looks like a shot-for-shot remake of Intouchables, which is a 2011 French comedy drama following the true story about a wealthy paraplegic who hires an unemployed man with a criminal history to help him in his day to day life.

Based on a true story, Intouchables follows the story of a wealthy Parisian named Phillipe – played by François Cluzet – who becomes paraplegic after a paragliding accident. He ends up hiring Driss – played by Omar Sy – a young man with a criminal history who becomes his live-in caretaker. Though both have their own personal problems, Phillipe with his disability and Driss with his struggling family, the relationship they share goes beyond that of standard employment and they end up becoming very close friends.

The Upside follows this same formula, with Kevin Hart taking the role of the caretaker and Bryan Cranston playing the wealthy paraplegic.

Now I don’t have a problem with taking a property and telling the story from a different perspective. Far from it. Sometimes a fresh set of eyes can benefit the telling of a story altogether. However, I have a couple of issues with this. My first issue with the trailer of The Upside is that it is so painfully obvious that they are trying to make the same film, even going as far as taking the exact same shots. Honestly, one of the trailers has a paragliding scene which is shot-for-shot the same as Les Intouchables. If you’re going to take anything and adapt it for your audiences, be very careful that it doesn’t turn out just to be a copy.

However, with that being said, the comedy looks a lot cheaper in The Upside. There is a particular scene in Les Intouchables where Driss discovers that his employer can’t feel anything by accidentally spilling boiling hot water on his leg, and then purposefully pouring it again in disbelief, making for a very funny scene. In the trailer for The Upside, it’s a cheap throwaway line of exposition. Both of these scenes are in each of the film’s trailers, and which one sounds more interesting to watch?

My second problem with it is that Americans traditionally have a good track record of taking a great foreign film and turning it into average garbage. One such example is the 2010 American film Let Me In and the 2008 Swedish film Let The Right One In. While both tell a story about a boy who is a social outsider falling in love with a vampire, Let The Right One In handles it in such a delicate and serious manner that its not only one of the best Swedish films I have ever seen, but a unique masterpiece of horror. Let Me In takes this beautifully crafted story and quite frankly dulls down everything that was so good about it.

These two examples aren’t the only times the American entertainment industry have changed up an old idea to create a poor product, and it is not just European films or cinema. For example, The Ring is based on the Japanese film of the same name, and is much less creepy than the original. Also, does anybody remember the American version of hit British comedy show The Inbetweeners being good?

Now there are some examples of Americans adapting a foreign property and the films turning out good, sometimes even great: the 1960 Western The Magnificent Seven is one of the best pieces of cinema ever made, and it’s an American adaptation of the 1954 Japanese film Seven Samurai. Martin Scorsese’s 2006 film The Departed is based on the Hong Kong crime thriller Internal Affairs which came out in 2002. However, these examples are few and far between, with the average/bad adaptations coming out more frequently than the good ones are.

However, though the American’s reputation of changing up a foreign film/ TV show for the worst is well known, the reverse doesn’t always provide the best results. One example adaptation of the British taking an American property is the English 2012 film Gambit, based on the 1966 film of the same name. The original American version had Michael Caine in the lead role and did very well. However, the same couldn’t said for the remake.

One of the more unwise moves that British television – more specifically MTV – has done is take recurring joke reality show Jersey Shore and adapt it for UK audiences. And beyond the UK, there is a Russian version of It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia. However interesting it sounds, on IMDb it has an average rating of 2.8/10, but the only review it has describes it as a “Russian masterpiece”, so make of that what you will.

There is also a hidden upside to this. When films like these come out, it can be argued that that more attention will be drawn back to original intellectual property, with fans of the original coming to see the adaptation while bringing new fans in to an older story. However, despite having an amazing cast, my hopes for The Upside are slim. It looks a bit too much like original and it’s also being directed by the same man who brought us the cinematic adaptation of Divergent which, in theme with the rest of this piece, was ok at best.

If you want to watch a great film, go check out Les Intouchables. It is undoubtedly one of the greatest films in recent French cinema. If you love movies, then go treat yourself. And who knows, maybe The Upside will be a good film. A small part of me is praying that it is, especially considering the comedy and acting heavyweights starring in the leading roles. However, I will not be holding my breath.