Samba (2014 film)

Plot

Samba Cissé (Omar Sy), a migrant from Senegal to France, works as a dish washer in a hotel. After a bureaucratic slip-up lands him in a detention, he is ordered to leave France. With the help of an immigration officer (Charlotte Gainsbourg), he fights to stay in France.

Cast

Reception

Review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes gives the film an approval rating of 59% based on 63 reviews and an average score of 5.9/10. The site's critical consensus reads "Samba isn't the finest effort from directors Olivier Nakache and Eric Toledano, but the film's shortcomings are partly balanced by its big heart and talented cast." On Metacritic, which assigns a normalised rating out of 100 based on reviews from mainstream critics, the film has a score of 53 based on 22 reviews, indicating "mixed or average reviews".

Peter Debruge of Variety called the film "A highly polished, widely appealing big-budget French movie." He praised Omar Sy's performance in the film that "Sy’s position as one of France’s most magnetic screen personalities, even more compelling to watch in serious scenes than in the obligatory comedic bits." Sam Woolf gave the film a positive review in We Got This Covered, saying that "The immigrant's struggle is brought to pulsating life in Samba, which works best as an affecting and amusing star vehicle for Omar Sy."

However, Jordan Mintzer of The Hollywood Reporter criticized the film's plot: "The film's message is lost amid too many plot contrivances." He concluded that it's "another crowdpleasing social dramedy from the makers of "Intouchables," though one that wears out its welcome without bringing its message home." Mark Adams from Screen International in his review said that it is a "well-meaning and occasionally joyous film that is ultimately too scattershot in its format and tone to really work."