. . . (they're all moochers and thieves), new moms (they'll just ignore the baby monitor to pleasure door-to-door salesmen as soon as their husbands leave for work), Germans (stingy--"We have strawberries; take a BIG one"), farmers (road hogs and polluters), RV families (if they find you high and dry, they'll strand you in the drink), businessmen (can't spare a quarter for a panhandler since they don't have anything smaller than a twenty), sports fans (too sensitive to be exposed to "gimps"), recreational bikers (they rudely rev noisy machines while night-shifters are trying to sleep), karaoke singers (cannot even pronounce the lyrics), small business manufacturers (their products are death traps), Finns (they spend all day drinking), management (it keeps workers so busy their spouses are driven to cheat), parents (who stuff children's brains with misinformation) . . . Bottom line: don't watch AALTRA if you prefer your flicks to be politically correct.

A commuter and a farmhand get in one another's way often, causing tensions and frustrations between them. When the farmhand causes the commuter to miss his train, lose his job and arrive home early to find his wife having an affair, the commuter and the farmhand get into a fight around the farm equipment and end up badly injured – both ending up paralysed from the waist down. Seemingly stuck with one another, they set out on a trip to Finland to seek out the manufacturer of the equipment that put them in this state.This sat on my harddrive for several months before I got around to watching it and, if you read the plot summary and know that it is a black & white and in French, you will perhaps understand why. Unsure of what to expect I settled down to it – thinking it unfair that I neglect it in favour of "easier" American blockbusters etc. What I found was an unspectacular but clever look at how disabled people are treated and viewed. The road trip aspect is not much more than a frame to allow this to happen and indeed even the conclusion is making the point in an amusing way. In regards narrative then it doesn't really satisfy because of this being the weaker aspect but I found the look at disability to be enough to cover this.The writer and director do well to avoid sentimentality or preaching and they are very even handed across the telling. We see people being overly kind, people ignoring them, people picking them and so on. Fairly we also seeing them taking advantage of goodwill and being just as big a pair of jerks as able-bodied people can be. It sounds simple to say it but the film does do a good job with this theme and, although not hilarious, it did produce some dark laughs along the way. Writer and director Delépine and de Kervern do a good job in the two lead roles and also work very well with a limited budget.Overall then not a perfect film but a cleverer one that I initially gave it credit for. The narrative is not a lot more than a frame to allow the dark comic look at the treatment of the two characters but in this regard it works well enough while the examples of treatment are fair and well delivered.

Aaltra is a film like no other. It is not just dark humour it's a pitch black comedy. The only thing is that the comedy doesn't start at the beginning of the film and I was wondering if someone had got it wrong. When too feuding neighbours both get themselves in to a fight a subsequent accident with a tractor leaves them both paralysed from the waist down. Wheelchair bound and completely inept at being disabled the two then venture on a highly bizarre road trip to try and get compensation from the company who's tractor got them in the mess in the first place. Where are the laughs? I hear you cry, well about twenty minutes into the film I started to chuckle and by the end I was wiping the tears from my eyes. You see the genius of the humour is in the main characters, who continue to feud, but secretly get on and aid each other in their quest. Imagine grumpy old men on wheels. Getting mugged, mugging themselves, stealing, out staying there welcome as irritating house guests, getting drunk, lost and in allsorts of scrapes once it gets going there isn't a dull moment. They say the essence of comedy is timing and these two are the masters of the pregnant pause, this added to the fact that they just look funny makes this film so enjoyable to watch. I don't want to give too much away; I want you all to experience the film as I did. Know a little not a lot about it and enjoy it loads.

A Franco-Belgian Yarmush but with more, much more irony; as in Yarmush, however, there is great respect for those on the down site of life. No wasted sentimentalism. Some scenes are built in the manner of Chaplin, with an unmoving camera and tripod waiting for things to happen in front of it. Gags are basically social or visual rather than intellectual. One or two scenes appear to have been snipped in the middle, leaving us not quite understanding the point of it. For example, the two cripples at some point ride in a van, in the back of which are four shirtless guys with eyes closed. We never learn what they're doing there. Are they drunks, corpses, sleepers...? Right after that, we see a naked woman splayed out on the ship taking them to Finland. Who is she, why is she there? No clues. Technically,however, the high contrast and grainy quality of the B&W is almost painful to watch.