REVIEW: TOUCH (1996)
Steve Kong
TOUCH
A film review by Steve Kong
Copyright 1997 Steve Kong
When Get Shorty came out, I was not too excited to see it. I wondered what
was so wonderful about that movie. And when it came down to it, I did miss
the movie in the theatres. But, after many recommendations later on from
co-workers, I went out and rented the movie to watch. And what a wonderful
movie. The best part of the movie was the dialog. The movie was filled with
great dialog. I regretted not seeing Get Shorty in the theatres, so when
Touch, another movie based on a Elmore Leonard novel, came out I rush out to
see it.
Touch is about a young man, named Juvenal, who bleeds from his palms and heals
with his touch. Touch is also about a woman, Lynn Faulkner, played by Bridget
Fonda, who falls in love with Juvenal unexpectedly. Christopher Walken plays
a snake-skin-boot-wearing-television-evangelist-turned-RV-salesman who weasels
his way into becoming Juvenal's agent. Tom Arnold plays a crazed religious
activist.
The movie is feels split between two completely different stories. One is
about the relationship that is building between Juvenal and Lynn. The other
is about Walken's character and Arnold's character trying to get access to
Juvenal. The relationship story has potential, the other story has a cheap
feeling to it. As if the writers needed something to be the conflict that
pushed the relationship story. Arnold heavily overplays his part and most of
the time makes it feel as if his character really didn't belong in this movie.
Walken's character is not overplayed by Walken, but its over stressed by the
director. How many shots of his snake skin boots do we need to see to figure
out that he is not an honest guy? Fonda and Ulrich do a good job with their
parts.
The movie has a cheap low-budget feel to it. And there are cheezy lines
spouted as, "Controversy is the oxygen I breathe!"
Did I enjoy any part of the movie? Yes, I did. I enjoyed the parts of the
movie when Janeane Garofalo was on screen. She is a cynical publisher in the
movie, and plays it right on the money. She is funny in all the scenes that
she has, and is just about the whole comedy part of the movie.
All in all, I wish that I had seen this on video or better yet on cable, and I
still want to see Get Shorty on the big screen. If you're planning to see
this, wait till it hits the small screen, it's just not worth seeing in the
theatres.
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steve kong d...@wco.com
mookie's place web http://www.wco.com/~dt/ mookie's place bbs +1.408.942.1984
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James Berardinelli
TOUCH
A film review by James Berardinelli
Copyright 1997 James Berardinelli
RATING (0 TO 10): 5.5
Alternative Scale: ** out of ****
United States, 1997
U.S. Release Date: 2/14/97 (limited)
Running Length: 1:37
MPAA Classification: R (Profanity, nudity, sex, mature themes)
Theatrical Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
Cast: Skeet Ulrich, Bridget Fonda, Christopher Walken, Tom Arnold
Director: Paul Schrader
Producers: Lila Cazes and Fid Attieh
Screenplay: Paul Schrader based on the novel by Elmore Leonard
Cinematography: Ed Lachman
Music: David Grohl
U.S. Distributor: United Artists
These days, Elmore Leonard is hot. Not only have his novels GET
SHORTY and now TOUCH recently been adapted into motion pictures, but at
least two more titles are on the way, including Quentin Tarantino's
anticipated version of RUM PUNCH. But, while GET SHORTY was a bonanza
for just about everyone involved, TOUCH proves that having the rights to
a Leonard story isn't enough. This particular adaptation is ambivalent
not only about what it wants to say, but how it wants to say it. The
result is a dissonant war between drama and satire, between characters
and caricatures.
On the one hand, we have the story of Juvenal (Skeet Ulrich), a
former Franciscan monk who now works at an alcoholic rehab center.
Juvenal's a quiet, unassuming person with an amazing gift: he can heal
with a touch. His arms, feet, and side bear the wounds of Christ, and,
when he heals, they bleed. While Juvenal is a deeply spiritual person,
he has become disillusioned about organized religion, and, when a smooth
talking con man by then name of Bill Hill (Christopher Walken) comes
along, Juvenal is easy prey. That's the drama.
On the other hand, we have all of the extraneous subplots orbiting
around this tale of spiritual exploration. There are Bill's attempts to
get the young man booked on a trash TV show (with host Gina Gershon) and
secure the publishing rights to his story. A fundamentalist Christian
(Tom Arnold) insists that Juvenal can only remain true to his calling by
giving up his relationship with Lynn (Bridget Fonda), an "impure" woman.
The mother (Lolita Davidovich) of one of Juvenal's miraculously healed
children wants to prolong her fifteen minutes of fame. Finally, there
are reporters and agents (played by Janeane Garofalo and Paul Mazursky,
among others) who see Juvenal as a meal ticket. That's the satire.
Taken separately, either the satirical or the dramatic elements
might have formed the backbone of an interesting motion picture.
Together, they create an unfocused mess. The parody isn't as biting as
it could be, and we've seen this kind of stuff before. Fundamentalist
religion is an easy target, especially when it involves sleazy
televangelists. The Tom Arnold character is a painfully irritating
caricature who should have been purged from the script altogether.
Christopher Walken, putting on his best oily smile, is one of the few
aspects of the film's cynical side that works. That, and the "Juvenal
Touched Me" tee-shirt worn by a healed child.
Then there are Skeet Ulrich and Bridget Fonda, who act like they're
in another movie. As far as they're concerned, this is a romantic drama
about two lonely souls finding each other. He's having a crisis of
faith and she's having a crisis of conscience. They're not particularly
concerned that they are being manipulated. In fact, at one point,
Juvenal makes the absurd statement that he can't be exploited if he's
allowing the exploitation to take place. Huh?
Part of the problem with TOUCH is that the audience is never sure
of Juvenal. I don't mean that he's complex or cleverly ambiguous; he's
murky and poorly-developed. We never get much of a sense of what he
feels about having these amazing powers, how he reacts to the
possibility that he may have lost them, and whether he's resentful of
all the media attention. Ulrich radiates a blandness that does nothing
to define his character. He and Fonda make an appealing couple, but
their romance is only a small part of what's going on.
TOUCH waffles regarding its views about spirituality, as well. By
the final reel, we're not sure if the film views faith with reverence or
contempt. And what seems to be a clear-cut message about selling out is
negated during the climax. Films like LEAP OF FAITH and THE RAPTURE,
which dealt with similar issues, maintained consistent viewpoints that
didn't leave the viewer unsure of the film makers' intentions.
Paul Schrader has done some interesting work in the past as both a
director (LIGHT SLEEPER) and a writer (TAXI DRIVER). Here, however, he
has gone off track. As intriguing as the material is -- and who
wouldn't be interested in a story about a con man's attempts to exploit
a miracle worker who may have lost his powers -- Schrader never gets a
handle on the right approach. The result is disappointing and
disjointed. Simply put, TOUCH just doesn't have the right feel.
- James Berardinelli
e-mail: bera...@bc.cybernex.net
ReelViews web site: http://www.cybernex.net/~berardin