What age is The Intouchables (Intouchables) appropriate for?

Rated R in the US. 17 alone, 11 with a parent; 11 in France. The whole movie, watched in full: what's in it, and how to talk about it with your child.

Why is The Intouchables (Intouchables) not recommended under 17?

What's in it: the official rating, first; a joint, passed around laughing; a man who says he is done; strong language, all the way through; cigarettes and drinks, casually; talk of death, nothing shown. The detail, fact by fact, is in the zinema guide, which reads the work itself (images, sound, dialogue).

zinema · movies · what age

The Intouchables (Intouchables): what age is it for? 17 alone, 11 with a parent

17 alone, 11 with a parent.

Movie · 2011 · 1 h 52 · drama, comedy

YRS

The trailer

Alone, or with you

89101112131415161718

not yetwith an adult, or to talk about afteralonethe sweet spot

The official US rating is R, and we never go below it. Alone from 17; from 11, with an adult or by talking about it afterwards.

The sweet spot: around 17, this is the age when you understand what it means to depend on someone for absolutely everything: washing, eating, turning over at night. The friendship between these two stops being a good joke and becomes the one thing that makes the situation liveable. Why a sweet spot?

Official US rating: R. In France, zinema would say 11.

Watch the trailerContinue in zinemathen where to watch it, in zinema · more trailers, and where to watch films · Where to stream itWhere to watch

What it's about

A true story of two men who should never have met, a quadriplegic aristocrat who was injured in a paragliding accident and a young man from the projects.

Why 17

The official rating, firstRated R in the US (restricted, under 17 requires an accompanying parent). zinema never goes below the country's rating: it explains it.
rule
A joint, passed around laughingDrugs come up in a scene played entirely for laughs, with nobody objecting and no consequence afterward. That easy, friendly tone is exactly why a grown-up should be in the room: the movie does not comment, so you can.
A man who says he is doneIn a quiet stretch late in the film, the main character speaks about having lost the will to live. It lasts only a moment and is not dramatized, but it lands hard and deserves a word from you afterward.
Strong language, all the way throughThe dialogue is loose and street level from the opening minutes, with more than thirty crude words across the film, plus a handful of insults traded between friends. It is the film's texture, never aimed to wound.
Cigarettes and drinks, casuallySmoking is constant and shown as pleasure, and wine and drinks appear at parties and dinners. Nothing is condemned, nothing is glorified either.
Talk of death, nothing shownDeath, a grief in the past, a threat thrown in anger and a few mentions of blows and bleeding all come through the dialogue. Nothing violent is actually shown.
Kisses and bedroom momentsThere are kisses, a suggested bedroom scene and a couple of brief glimpses of bare skin, handled quickly and without insistence. Younger viewers will mostly register the flirting and the jokes around it.

What the movie brings

It shows two men from opposite worlds becoming equals through humor rather than pity.
It puts disability on screen without solemnity, as a life that still holds jokes, music and desire.
It asks what we owe someone we care for, and what care costs the person giving it.

Watching it together

Before

Tell them beforehand that the film jokes about almost everything, and that you will happily pause on the drug scene or the darkest line afterward.

After

at 17 and up

Driss treats Philippe like anyone else instead of handling him gently. Why does that help him more than sympathy would?

See the facts

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For the same age, on zinema

Les Caprices de l’Enfant Roi 12, 11 with a parent
The Mandalorian 14
Practical Magic 2 13
The Chosen 11, 10 with a parent

The latest guides

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A zinema reading from September 26, 2026 · the whole movie, watched in full · the age by zinema's rules for the US and France, and a human reading · report an error · how this guide is made