UNTOUCHABLE

That rare thing, a film about disability that manages not to deliver a stodgy sob story

If, like me, you are still high on the atmosphere from having the Paralympics, you will probably be thinking how incredibly lucky we were to have such amazing achievement on our doorstep every day.

Disability doesn't get that sort of positive attention often enough. For every success on the field, there are millions of people whose lives go unmarked. That two of this year's most acclaimed films focus on the everyday lives of disabled characters, rather than any superhuman achievement, is a small triumph.

Marion Cotillard is a shoo-in for an Oscar nomination for her role as an amputee in the drama Rust And Bone, released next month (November), but it's Untouchable that is France's big hope in the Foreign Language Film category. A smash at the European box office – Colin Firth is mooted for the inevitable English-language remake – it's a feel-good drama based on the true story of the relationship between the former director of Pommery Champagne, Philippe Pozzo di Borgo, paralysed from the neck down after a paragliding accident, and his Algerian carer Abdel Sellou, an ex-con from the Parisian projects.

Sellou is recast as the Senegalese Driss, played by Omar Sy, who beat The Artist's Jean Dujardin to the French equivalent of an Oscar earlier this year. Untouchable does few favours to the representation of the care industry: every other applicant for the post is either empathy-free or a money-grabber.

Driss only applies for the role to tick off enough interviews to claim his benefit, but the mega-rich Philippe, bored of suck-ups, hires him for his lack of pity. Despite this unpromising start, Driss turns out to be so charmingly efficient that he could be Mary Poppins only with better teeth.

You can also play cliché bingo with the textbook stuffy white man/streetwise black man relationship that has given Eddie Murphy such a healthy pension pot. The chemistry between Sy and François Cluzet's Philippe is so electric that it doesn't matter. Almost.

Underlying every laugh-out loud moment – Philippe and Driss spar with a dry wit that is gorgeous to watch – is a cynical
sense of feel-good box-ticking. Driss using his nous to bring Philippe's wandering daughter back into line; high-low culture clashes abound; Driss's tough love restores Philippe's confi dence as a man. If the remake were 10 or 20 years ago, Sy's role would have Eddie Murphy written all over it.

An excellent supporting cast makes you wish this had been played more subtly. Anne Le Ny's loyal housekeeper Yvonne, and Audrey Fleurot as Philippe's comely, no-nonsense assistant Magalie, bring colour to a household you fall in love with.

However, despite the odd whipsmart exchange, you know it's only moments before you'll be hit by a moment that seems to have fallen straight out of the approved Hollywood guide to making a feel-good, box-offi ce hit.

Clips of the real Pozzo di Borgo and Sellou hanging out together at the end of the film make you want to find out more about them. The former's autobiography, A Second Wind, might be the heartwarming, realistic heart that this version lacks.