Untouched

This film was much more unpredictable than I expected. I kept thinking I had it figured out, then ... nope. The premise is a very touchy (no pun intended) subject matter, but it was deftly handled by director Raphael Vieira. Performances are solid, especially Chip Lane. I was impressed by how much production value they achieved on such a limited budget. There's a lot more I want to say about the story, but even little hints could spoil the fun. Dive in!

Let me start with, I think this could be a really great weekly series. The Law firm taking on new cases each week - as we continue to learn more about the main characters. I do enjoy things like this. the Cinematography was beautiful...found the outside nature shots to be absolutely picturesque...the score was great. All around I enjoyed it. I love it when I see new projects. Hopefully the filmmakers are thinking about trying to turn this into a series.

UNTOUCHED is a really well shot and compelling crime drama! Just as another reviewer commented, not many indie films have the courage to take on this genre because real-life crime drama is tough to do well. Untouched does it really well and makes you think pretty deeply about the subject of abortion and the legal system which is pretty intense. The photography is fantastic and the actors deliver some great performances taking the viewer on a really dramatic journey that I found super fulfilling. Great job!

Where can you find an dynamic $100,000 (approx. according to IMDB) budget movie with some fairly well-known talent and an extremely exquisite setting, AND get quality, intensity and a powerful pro-life message? The answer is almost nowhere! Well, all of these things can be found in UNTOUCHED - The Movie (2017). Excellent casting by Executive Producer Angelique Chase, a well-known actress led to a phenomenal job with her team in maximizing resources to produce the best Indie film I can remember seeing.

Based on a true story, UNTOUCHED takes place in a small town around beautiful Savannah, Georgia where a troubled, but wealthy attorney, Mitchell Thomas (played by Chip Lane of Sponge Bob Movie; Abraham Lincoln vs Zombies etc.) is called on to reluctantly represent the teenage daughter of a local pastor. The teen, Jacqueline, was charged with the murder and abandonment of her aborted child, in what first appears to be an open and shut case. This case, however, is the engine which powers the deeper story behind this well-written movie.

Indie films on smaller budgets do not have this high caliber of courtroom drama, with its clues of what lies behind the troubled soul of the main character - Mitch Thomas. He is the son of the very uppity, yet classy Eleanor Thomas who actually owns the law firm. Eleanor Thomas is played by the ageless Simone Griffeth, who is just barely tolerant of this heavy drinking, unkempt (but expensive clothes). Eleanor also has her own issues, having given up a personal life, in order to maintain control over her thriving law firm.

What makes this movie grow in intensity is the supporting cast of great characters, fortified by a flawless performance by Jenn Gotzon as prosecutor Reece James; Chelsea Caldwell as Lauren Haddad and Christopher Watson as Taylor Gant, Thomas' trusted friend. The drama deepens as both Mitch the attorney and Gant, his police officer friend, start investigating the story behind Jacqueline's abortion and arrest for murder of her unborn child.

The parallel story line is woven perfectly by circumstances and one particular scene especially featuring Jenn Gotzon's prosecutor character and actress Sandra Elise Williams starts to reveal the real reason why Mitch drinks so heavily, overshadows the murder case as far as getting to a defining moment, in Mitch's character development.

This Indie film is so very compatible with those with the really big budgets due to a very clever screenplay, a cast who is completely all in for the long haul and some gritty lighting. As beautiful as Savannah, Georgia is, the dark reality of the plot/subplot comes across with atmospherics created by the producers. The fact that some of the main people involved are Georgians help in creating an authentic aura about Untouched. The cinematography is just so well done as well as the primary musical score.

"Untouched" acquits itself as a wonderfully rich and nuanced crime drama that somehow manages to stand toe-to-toe with legitimately classic Hollywood films of its same ilk. It's the kind of movie you might feed to a devout indie film skeptic as a gateway drug to other great indies, as it truly succeeds in blurring the lines between endless major studio resources and traditional indie constraints.

Mitch is an attorney with the kind of demons you'd find at a bar in Dante's nine circles of hell. Played with an elite sense of complication by Chip Lane, Mitch gets himself immersed in the defense of a teenage girl accused of murder, with her alleged newborn the alleged victim. Shot in the idyllic South of smaller-town Georgia, the young woman and the emerging social complexities of her situation trigger the full-blown resurfacing of Mitch's own unresolved backstory, which he fruitlessly tries to suppress by drenching himself in booze. As he peers behind the curtain of the community in search of essential but well-hidden truths, a fascinating symbiotic relationship emerges naturally and cleverly from the "Untouched." We come to realize that the resolution of Mitch's own long-festering wounds may be a prerequisite to redeeming the young woman he now represents.

"Untouched" does a wonderful job of presenting two parallel-running stories and driving them to a point of convergence. As the story pulls the mask off some darker realities and drives toward its well-crafted resolution, there's a sense here that we're been treated to some remarkable storytelling craft in this modern iteration of one of film's most long-standing genre vehicles. Highly recommended. - (Was this review of use to you? If so, let me know by clicking "Helpful." Cheers!)