TOUCH (1997)
A Film Review Copyright Dragan Antulov 2003
Until 1990s novels of Elmore Leonard were popular source of material for Hollywood screenwriters, but most of those adaptations were low-budget or genre movies. In mid 1990s Hollywood discovered that the worlds and characters created in Leonard's novels had much in common with those described in Tarantino's films. In a relatively short period of time, Hollywood produced three films, each being based on Leonard's work. One of those was TOUCH, 1997 comedy/drama written and directed by Paul Schrader and based on Leonard's 1977 satirical novel.
The movie deals with Charlie Lawson a.k.a. Juvenal (played by Skeet Ulrich), former Franciscan monk who works in the centre for treating alcoholics. One day it turns out that Juvenal possesses supernatural healing powers and the incident is witnessed by Bill Hill (played by Christopher Walken), failed televangelist who now cons people for living. In a bid to bring Juvenal in front of cameras and thus earn money, Bill Hill sends his former associate Lynn Faulkner (played by Bridget Fonda) to centre. Unexpectedly, Lynn not only falls in love with Juvenal, but also starts having second thoughts about the whole scheme.
At first glance, Paul Schrader, because of his background and fact that HARDCORE, one of his best (and most underappreciated) films dealt with issues of religion in modern world, seemed like a good choice to write and direct this film. Unfortunately, most of Schrader's best films were serious and therefore Leonard's satirical novel - which had mocked the emerging phenomena of televangelism, talk shows and media vultures - wasn't suitable material for the writer of TAXI DRIVER. For the most of the film Schrader doesn't seem to know whether he directs comedy and drama and this loss of direction hurts the movie. The characters that were supposed to be funny are simply too bizarre to be believable (including ultra- conservative Catholic activist played by Tom Arnold) and too many times during the movie audience are led to expect memorable scenes and powerful moments only to be disappointed by something utterly prosaic and underwhelming. Some actors, including Ulrich, try their best to put some life in TOUCH, but despite all their efforts, most of the audience would easily forget this film.
RATING: 3/10 (+)
Review written on December 18th 2003
Dragan Antulov a.k.a. Drax http://film.purger.com - Filmske recenzije na hrvatskom/Movie Reviews in Croatian http://www.ofcs.org - Online Films Critics Society
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