Touch (1997)
Down-and-out former preacher Bill Hill witnesses stranger Juvenal save a woman from her abusive husband by defusing the latter's anger — and ending his wife's blindness. Determined to profit from Juvenal's mystical powers, Bill asks an old friend, Lynn Faulkner, to sneak into the Alcoholics Anonymous facility where Juvenal works as a counselor, but she finds herself falling for the healer.
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To me, this movie is perfection.
As Good As It Gets
A lot more amusing than I thought it would be.
The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.
Paul Schrader can be very erratic as a director. I think Affliction is his best film, by far, and this movie and Blue Collar are his next best. That said, you cannot be immune to the basic conceit and find it provocative, much less enjoyable. If you can accept that the Skeet Ulrich character may have St. Francis like qualities, and can really heal sick and handicapped people, Touch is a wonderful film. Christopher Walken (as always) is excellent as the ambitions and unseemly tent-show preacher, hell bent on making a fortune from the "healer-man"; and the others in the cast, Bridget Fonda, Anthony Zerbe and Tom Arnold especially, are excellent, too. Arnold, in particular, brings an amazing zeal and perfect, inadvertent humour to his portrayal of a slightly militarist, born again, religious fanatic. Certainly the movie raises more questions than it answers, and it is not quite as spiritually provocative or deep as Bigas Luna's Renacer, but it is certainly well worth watching.
This was a total waste of my time. Not only did the movie lack a clear message, but the choppy nature left you guessing what the story was about. The acting wasn't convincing and the special effects were decidely poor. It's no wonder I never heard of this movie before I saw it on TV.
A comedy that tries a little too hard to be offbeat. Ulrich is Juvenile, an oblivious ex-Franciscan monk who has the power of stigmata. He can heal those he touches.Walken is a religious profiteer who attempts to make a few bucks of Juvenile by elisting Fonda's help. The tongue-in-cheek satire does not mix well its use of slapstick, and most of the jokes end up flopping around on the floor for a few moments too long.No one seems to be having much fun in their roles, except for Tom Arnold, who's having too much fun as the annoying christian extremist trying to bring people to the old ways of worship. His energetic idiocy succeeds all too well in annoying.
I did not enjoy this movie. I read the book a while ago, and, although I can't remember exactly how I felt about it, I must have liked it somewhat, or I would not have rented this film. I rented it mostly to see Christopher Walken and Janeane Garofalo, but even they couldn't save this. It's quite boring, and it seems like a lot of the actors can't convey the story realistically. I really wanted to like this movie, but it was impossible.