TOUCH
A film review by Steve Rhodes
Copyright 1996 Steve Rhodes
RATING (0 TO ****): **
TOUCH is a film about healing through stigmata. For those of you like myself who recognize the word but have no idea what it means, the movie's information kit defines it as "a spontaneous manifestation of bloody wounds on a person's hands, feet, and side, similar to wounds of the crucified Jesus Christ." It goes on to claim that over 300 cases have been recorded.
With this much information you probably figure TOUCH is another movie from some religious order. Wrong.
The director is Paul Schrader, who also wrote the screenplay based on the book by Elmore Leonard. Schrader is a director who likes his material on the edge. His two best movies were CAT PEOPLE (1982) with Nastassja Kinski and PATTY HEARST (1988) with Natasha Richardson. The first featured a scene where a naked Kinski runs like a cat through the woods with the blood of a rabbit dripping from her mouth. The second has Richardson locked in a dark closet for scene after scene while Cinque screams profanities at her.
As you can now guess, Schrader approaches TOUCH in ways that other directors might not. As always, he attracts a high caliber cast. Although TOUCH does have its moments, I spent most of the movie as confused as the actors. As occasional nervous laughter crept into what was otherwise an unusually silent press screening, I kept asking myself: Was this line supposed to be funny? Are we laughing with the show or at it?
Most of the actors were confused as to whether they were in a serious film or a comedy. Others seemed to feel they were in a parody. Many scenes were quite enjoyable, and yet...
Perhaps it was the movie's beginning that turned me off. Any show that starts with someone throwing objects at a television screen because he does not like what is playing puts my cliche meter immediately into the red zone.
As it turned out, the guy doing the throwing was an alcoholic, and his wife was blind. Someone, who goes by the unlikely name of Juvenal (Skeet Ulrich), comes to the rescue of the abusive husband. Juvenal, whose real name we will learn is Charlie Lawson, works at the alcoholic treatment center at Sacred Heart. When he sees that the man's wife is blind, he holds her head, bleeds on her (see stigmata definition above), and restores her sight.
Skeet Ulrich's acting makes the picture. You are never sure what he is going to do next, and he has the innocence of a true faith healer. Juvenal has supposedly spent the last six years in a jungle in Brazil, and Ulrich's performance make this easily believable. His goatee and overall appearance are meant to remind the audience of Jesus without trying to copy some religious picture exactly.
An ex-minister named Billy Hill (Christopher Walken) who now sells recreational vehicles witnesses the miracle. Since Hill's specialty is religious cons, he smells money. With the help of his fellow con artist Lynn Faulkner (Bridget Fonda), who used to twirl the baton at his services, he tries to find out about Juvenal. Walken and Fonda are great actors and watching them pull off these ambiguous roles was one of the delights of the film.
In an unnecessary side plot, probably to boost ticket sales, Lynn and Juvenal have a fling so both get to take their clothes off. This also allows Lynn to inquire when doing her lover's laundry, "Do you think it's all right? Stigmata blood in the wash?" And Juvenal can confess to her, "I bleed from five wounds and heal people, but I've never been in love."
TOUCH bogs now more than you would expect from a Paul Schrader film. In one long scene, for example, Walken and Fonda are forced to sit around making small talk. Walken is better doing something creepy, and Fonda seems too intelligent to bother with this meaningless banter.
Easily the weakest character in the film, Tom Arnold gets large amounts of screen time as August Murray, the head of a protest movement within the Roman Catholic Church. His group is known as "the gray army of the Holy Ghost." They break up masses with guitar singing priests by stripping the priests of their vestments during the service. Latin is the only language for their church. Their gray shirts are reminiscent of Hitler's brown shirts. Arnold's performance borders on the embarrassing.
The movie is full of known actors. Paul Mazursky plays a record producer who spends most of his time on his cell phone. A director and an actor, Mazursky has had mixed success with both careers. Here he is the most wasted of all of the actors. He is not asked to do much and he doesn't. He gets lines like, "A prompt man is a lonely man."
Lolita Davidovitch appears as a stripper whose son is cured of leukemia by Juvenal. Davidovitch acts with great gusto in what is a part so small that it would have vanished without her energy.
Janeane Garofalo, who was so wonderful in THE TRUTH ABOUT CATS & DOGS, has a part as the skeptical newspaper reporter Cathy Worthington. Garofalo takes her few lines and makes them special by her mere presence.
The show will build toward a visit by Juvenal to see Debra Lusanna, an Oprah style talk show host played by Gina Gershon. "Controversy is my oxygen," Lusanna says. "It's the air I breathe." Gershon's acting abilities appear limited to large smiles.
An off-beat show, certainly. And sometimes, an interesting one. But too much of its far out humor just doesn't work.
TOUCH runs just 1:37. It is rated R. There is some male and female nudity, a little sex, a little violence, and a few cuss words. Perhaps it was the sacrilegious aspects that got it the R, but I would have expected the film to have gotten a PG-13. The show would be fine for any teenager and perhaps those just a bit younger if they can understand the humor in the material. I liked parts of the show especially some of the acting, but cannot bring myself to recommend it. I give it **.
**** = One of the top few films of this or any year. A must see film. *** = Excellent show. Look for it. ** = Average movie. Kind of enjoyable. * = Poor show. Don't waste your money. 0 = One of the worst films of this or any year. Totally unbearable.
REVIEW WRITTEN ON: December 27, 1996
Opinions expressed are mine and not meant to reflect my employer's.
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