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Film review: Charlotte Gainsbourg and Omar Sy in SAMBA

Film review: Charlotte Gainsbourg and Omar Sy in SAMBA March 16, 2015Culture, Film0 Comments

I’ve lived all my life in New Zealand. Some might call that good fortune; others might say it’s grim beyond measure, and ask why haven’t I emigrated to live a better life abroad? I’d reply that I haven’t had to – New Zealand’s pretty good, and I’m well paid, and my house doesn’t leak.

Not everyone gets to live in a country like ours, though. Some people will move heaven and earth to make a new life for themselves in the West. They’ll endure every trial, every torture, every tedious queue and immigration form. They’ll get visas and permits and stamps and when that doesn’t work they’ll break the law if needs be, so great is the human need to live a good life. These people have the same wants and fears as the rest of us: they want to be loved, to be safe, to be warm, to be needed. They want to laugh and live. They just want to get on with their lives. This is the lesson presented to us in Samba.

The titular character, Samba (Omar Sy) is a Senegalese émigré trying to make his way in France. He has troubles with the law because of his immigration status, even though he’s gainfully employed and tries to stay out of trouble. After one too many run-ins with the authorities, he enlists the help of Alice (Charlotte Gainsbourg), who is a volunteer at the local immigrant support centre (but who, of course, has a dark past). Samba just wants to live a happy life, and Alice just wants to be able to sleep at night.

It’s unclear whether Alice is here to help Samba, or whether it’s the other way around, or whether it’s both – what is clear is that everyone just wants to be left alone. Send me your tired, huddled masses, and all that. It’s #LeaveMeBe and #JustBeNice. Samba is the sort of film that sets out to tell a story, but doesn’t quite succeed in the telling as much as the director hopes it will.

There are some very good performances from the lead actors – Omar Sy is particularly good, and we’ll hopefully see a lot more of him (you might recall him from X-Men: Days of Future Past in which he played the mutant “Bishop,” and he’s going to be in the fourth Jurassic Park film). Charlotte Gainsbourg is as polished as you’d expect for someone with her acting pedigree, and the supporting cast have pathos and charisma in spades.

Where Samba stumbles is in its plot. There’s just too many little contrivances and distractions for the film to really hit home, and this is disappointing. I was expecting good things from Samba – after all, it comes to us from the same triumvirate of actor Omar Sy and directors Olivier Nakache and Eric Toledano who brought us the fantastic (and César Award-winning) 2012 film Intouchables. Unfortunately, they tried to squeeze just too much into Samba for it to really swing.

3.5 out of 5 stars

Michael Tarry
16th March 2015