THE EXTRAORDINARY - Hors Normes (French Movie Reviews)


10/10

 Bruno and Malik couldn’t be too different. Bruno is Jewish, Malik is Arab. Bruno is a loner Malik is a family man. But they are united to help children with autism. And this passion drives every day of their life.

We often forget what a definition of a good person is. In THE EXTRAORDINARY it’s those who don’t look away and don’t give up when things get hard. Once again the duo Olivier Nakache and Eric Toledano (The Intouchables) wrote and directed a film about real people standing up to great hardships, and they’ve done it with a lot of heart, humour and no preaching. 
The film’s first shot could be one from a thriller - a young girl is running from her pursuers through the city steers, only to be caught and drugged into a van, which quickly drives away. This is a common theme of the film - a fight with preconceptions. What seems like a kidnapping is actually a rescue mission.

Nakache and Toledano created a perfect style of story telling - through small character story arcs and anecdotes they speak of a greater things, creating a versatile canvas of the world their characters live in. 
The other strength is in choosing their cast: Vincent Cassel and Reda Kateb are at the peak of their popularity in France and have a perfect chemistry. The script is written with honesty, clarity, irony and humour and can only be described as perfect.

With its themes of following one’s calling and challenging the rules society creates for the problems it doesn’t understand, THE EXTRAORDINARY is deep and emotionally satisfying experience.

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