Even my minor league status as a rock authority doesn't transfer to what used to be celluloid, because Gina and I loved seeing Samba (Gaumont Film Company/France, 2014) this week, and then looking to see what others thought about it...well, the online reviews are generally blase. Mine is rather glowing, as it captured my interest for two solid hours, and so I'm writing about it anyway.
The story is about an illegal immigrant (played by Oliver Sy) trying to remain in France with the help of a burned out caseworker trying to reignite her love of life (played by Charlotte Gainsbourg). If you've seen The Intouchables, you're aware of Sy's sex appeal, and yet that's only the surface, as in Samba, he portrays someone with warmth, kindness, humor, street smarts, bitterness--and tumbles into lapses in judgement. Directed by Olivier Nakache and Eric Toledano, Samba depicts the awful truth that there isn't enough employment to go around, either for citizens or illegal immigrants, and this gritty landscape--in sharp contrast to a romanticized Paris--adds to the film's dark edges.
I have a Gainsbourg album that's just so-so and had never seen her in a movie before; again, another terrific performance: her portrayal is full of depth, as a hesitant cheeriness, compassion and self-inflicted wounds stand side by side.
Samba is just too moving (and often too funny) to rate just six points out of ten.