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Purely Joyful Movie!

It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

The movie's not perfect, but it sticks the landing of its message. It was engaging - thrilling at times - and I personally thought it was a great time.

Mostly, the movie is committed to the value of a good time.

Samba Cissé (Omar Sy) is an undocumented migrant from Senegal living with his uncle in Paris. He's been in the country for ten years and is working in a kitchen. He's offered a contract and tries to apply for papers. He's quickly arrested and put in detention. Alice (Charlotte Gainsbourg) is a new social worker assigned to his case. He befriends Jonas who hasn't seen his fiancé Gracieuse for two years. He is ordered to leave France and allowed to walk out of the detention center. He befriends an Algerian named Wilson as he struggles to find work with the order hanging over his head.There are some funny moments of the social workers struggling to make sense of their clients. Omar Sy is a compelling presence. He has real charisma. This was released in 2014 but it feels like the news have overtaken the migrant issue. This movie is not all light and fun but it definitely does not take that issue to that level. Watching it only two years later, it feels very dated. This kind of comedy with touches of drama doesn't fit these dark times.

This film could have been a lot better. It dragged in places - 2 hours long!!! 90 minutes would have been sufficient.The major problem is Charlotte Gainsbourg. I'd like to like her, given her parents, but she seems to have only two expressions: sulky, bored face and wan smile. She doesn't seem to be capable of emotions. She whispers most of her words.In a lot of the scenes with her and Omar Sy the characters didn't say much. Sort of along the lines of: *cough* "Did you say something?" "No. No, I didn't say anything." "Oh, you see I thought you had said something." "No, not me." "Oh, I thought you had." In places like this, the film drags.Fortunately, there are plenty of laughs along the way.However.. as is often the case with French comedies, there are sad bits, too. What is shocking is to see how the 'sans-papiers', those without the necessary papers, actually live. It's a dangerous and precarious life, never knowing where your next bit of paid, but illegal, work is coming from. I know it's a film and so not a real-life documentary, but it does make you think. It's sobering.Even a funny character like Wilson makes you realise just how hard the life of an illegal immigrant is. He's generally a happy-go-lucky character, but you can see how desperate he is to keep his charade going. Poor guy.Or take the scenes where the women in the immigration centre are trying to help all the immigrants. They are funny scenes, but you realise what a hard task they have.I'd watch the film again - but it could have been a lot better with a tighter script and a different female lead.

This movie about the trials of Samba, a Senegalese illegal immigrant's life in Paris is from the director and lead actor Omar Sy that brought us The Intouchables, and suffers from revisiting the fish out of water relationships that underpinned that earlier film less convincingly. I just couldn't swallow the attraction that brought Alice, a burned out recruitment executive and Samba together, and most of the other central characters such as Wilson (Tahar Rahim) were superficial or unbelievable. The best aspect was raising the issue of how western societies treat refugees and illegal migrants. But overall it lurched between slapstick and serious without the glue of characters one cared about to hold it together.

"Samba" (2014 release from France; 115 min.) brings the story of Samba Cissé. As the movie opens, the camera pans from a wedding reception to ultimately the back kitchen, where we meet Samba, an illegal resident in Paris hailing from Senegal, making ends meet as a dishwasher. It's not long before Samba gets into trouble, and he faces possible deportation, despite having live in France already 10 years. Alice, a novice social worker/pro bono immigration adviser, is assigned to Samba's case. To tell you more would spoil your viewing experience, you'll just have to see for yourself how it all plays out.Couple of comments: first, this is a return of the team that brought us the delightful "The Untouchables" a few years ago: co-directors Olivier Nakache and Eric Toledano, and lead actor Omar Sy. On top of that, one of my favorite actresses, Charlotte Gainsbourg, co-stars. So this just HAS to be a great movie, right? Alas, it was not to be. From almost the very beginning of the movie, the plot is riddled with clichés and one-dimensional characters. Alice, played by Gainsbourg, is a rookie, literally the first day on the job. She is told by a co-worker who is training her that she should never, ever give out her phone number to any of the immigrants she is assigned to assist. So what does Alice do within minutes? Give her phone number to Samba, of course! The immigration system is portrayed as absurd, and I'm sure that there are serious issues there, but the way that the directors present it to us (all illegal immigrants: angels! immigration officials: the devil incarnate!) just made me roll my eyes. As for the supposed "comedy" aspects of this movie, I didn't notice much of any. I'm sorry if I'm being harsh on this movie. I'm sure this movie was well-intended, and I really wanted to like it, but when the movie was over, I felt very disappointed and, frankly, let down. Please note there is a nice soundtrack (available in France but not in the US, as far as I can tell), which features the Brothers Johnson's "Stomp", Bob Marley's "Waiting In Vain", and Cyreeta's "To Know You Is to Love You", among many others.I saw this movie during a recent family visit in Belgium. The early evening screening where I saw this at was quite well attended actually. I have no idea if or when this movie will make it to US theaters, although given the success on the art-house theater circuit of "The Untouchables", I wouldn't be surprised that this gets a US release at some point. Whether in the theater or eventually on DVD/Blu-ray, I encourage you to check this out and draw your own conclusions about "Samba".