If this was the first I watched from Toledano/Nakache starring Omar Sy, I would say it has its moments but mostly displays immature story-writing/story-telling skills. Now this comes after the tremendously successful Intouchables, and I am left wondering what went wrong.
Samba is another adaptation, but unlike Intouchables you don't have powerful core dynamics. Samba is a nice boy, Alice is a nice girl and both are just thrown in the middle of a distressing world that is too harsh on them. They try to cope with it but they are basically passive characters so it really gets boring as the story piles up scenes that just drag along these fatalistic souls. No matter how gentle and touching they are: we get this point pretty early on.
Maybe Toledano/Nakache fell in love with the book Samba is based on and of course nobody would challenge them after Intouchables. This is what plagues talent most: self-doubt and sycophants. Apparently working as a team didn't preclude them from getting over with the Intouchables hangover (I guess they have families and couldn't step aside from the madness).
Samba is hardly an interesting story. The ordeal of undocumented aliens was surely a very interesting idea as a background for a real story, with characters that actually try and choose to change their lives. Unfortunately in Samba there is only this interesting background with gentle passive characters barely afloat.
Samba is another adaptation, but unlike Intouchables you don't have powerful core dynamics. Samba is a nice boy, Alice is a nice girl and both are just thrown in the middle of a distressing world that is too harsh on them. They try to cope with it but they are basically passive characters so it really gets boring as the story piles up scenes that just drag along these fatalistic souls. No matter how gentle and touching they are: we get this point pretty early on.
Maybe Toledano/Nakache fell in love with the book Samba is based on and of course nobody would challenge them after Intouchables. This is what plagues talent most: self-doubt and sycophants. Apparently working as a team didn't preclude them from getting over with the Intouchables hangover (I guess they have families and couldn't step aside from the madness).
Samba is hardly an interesting story. The ordeal of undocumented aliens was surely a very interesting idea as a background for a real story, with characters that actually try and choose to change their lives. Unfortunately in Samba there is only this interesting background with gentle passive characters barely afloat.