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Thoughts On “The Upside”
I saw the film “The Upside” last night. I’ll definitely be writing a column in which I’ll review it more in-depth, but I did want to go ahead and share my initial thoughts.
Overall, I liked it a lot more than I thought I would. It’s not great, but there are little nuances in it that I really liked, and the chemistry between Bryan Cranston and Kevin Hart really carries the movie. I actually saw it with a close friend who was one of my caregivers in college, and we found ourselves quite enjoying and connecting to the humorous aspects of the story.
When I first saw the trailer, I was worried that the narrative would be “a cynical, disabled rich guy learns to appreciate life when he builds a relationship with his unlikely caregiver.” I didn’t need another story about a comically depressed guy in a wheelchair whose disability is the source of his misery. Fortunately, the film isn’t that. Ironically, it’s Hart’s caregiver who undergoes more of an arc than Cranston’s; so in that respect it kind of subverts the “caregiver rescues disabled client” cliche. Granted, the film is still full of cliches, particularly with how the more dramatic components and tensions are quickly resolved with a little sentimentality and a heartwarming soundtrack. It’s an unabashedly feel-good comedy/drama, so the cheesiness is to be expected.
Though I think the film is decent, my main criticism is that there’s no reason that Cranston’s character could not have been portrayed by a disabled actor. Aside from pictures, he’s never shown as himself before the accident that paralyzed him. Plus, the movie already had Hart as the star power force to sell tickets, so the whole “name-recognition” argument isn’t really justified here. A no-name actor could have starred opposite Hart, and I doubt ticket sales would have been that affected. In fact, it may have helped boost them, because more disability advocates would have given it a shot. Cranston is still one of my favorite actors and I have enormous respect for him, and here it’s clear he did his research to provide an authentic portrayal of a quadriplegic; but I do think that the producers could have cast a disabled actor to make it more authentic. My hope is that this will change down the road.
I give the movie a solid 3/5 stars. It has its problems and cliches, but with strong performances and enough disability humor to make me laugh, I’d recommend people here to see it. At the very least it sparks discussion, and I’d love to hear your opinions.
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4 Replies
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I’m still looking forward to seeing it
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Like I said I quite enjoyed it. It has its faults, but there were a lot of things I liked about it as well.
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Planning on going Tuesday. Might vlog about it. I’ve heard good things.
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A vlog about your thoughts on the movie would be awesome. I just wrote my column about it this morning.
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