Touched with Fire

It felt like it's promoting for such kind of love. There's been times during the film where I was like "I want to experience a love like that". I rarely watch romance unless there is an idea behind it and this film was radical, a ball of energy, and actually enjoyable.

This film tells the story of a man and a woman who meet each other in a psychiatric ward in a hospital. They bond over poetry and other artistic aspects, yet they trigger each other's manic illness that naturally causes much concern to the people around them.

"Touched With Fire" is the name of a poetry book that I had to study in my GCSE English literature course. Hence, I wanted to watch this film. To my surprise, the story is very because it is real and convincing. The two bipolar patients behave exactly like what people having a relapse behaves. Their highs and lows are realistically portrayed by the director and the acting talents. When the guy proclaims his love for manic relapses, it is almost heartbreaking to watch.

It is unusual that a film can portray bipolar lives so accurately. I really like the fact that Kay Jamieson, the author of "The Unquiet Mind", has a cameo in the film as well. "Touched With Fire" is really a hidden gem.

Touched With Fire is a story based on the real life story of the director,Paul Dalio, ironically I think this is the reason why the movie seems to wrap up so neatly.

From the point of view of the film, manic-depressive is something certain people have that make them express emotion on a deeper level. It does not come off as dangerous at all in the film considering the film is about two poets who suffer form it

The movie is not convincing at ail that it's dangerous to be guided by your emotions, on one level it seems like that's exactly what the filmmaker wants you to take away, but certain points in the film make me uncertain.

One point that does come across really well is the idea that two people who seem so right for each other, are in fact the exact opposite.

It's a great strangely done romantic comedy about two people who are fighting the world alone, until they found each other. It was very passionate.

Katie Holmes was good in the movie too.

But it still bothers me that the movie does a lackluster job in having a firm foot on the illness these two carry. Weather positive or negative, I did not get the point.

As much as I wish I could, it would not be fair to give this film a higher rating than I have, the reason being that I understand why it is completely impossible for the vast majority of viewers to ever find this film as moving as I do. Those of us who are members of the elite craft that Marco mentions all see this movie through a completely different lens than those who do not live every day of our lives with this thing that can be just as accurately categorized as an illness as a gift.

Paul Dalio, writer, director, editor and composer of this film, has been through the experience of being hospitalized with a manic episode and subsequently diagnosed and medicated. Using his artistic gift for film making, he has created a story that attempts to show the world what it's like to experience life with bipolar disorder. It is a very nice story that does a good job of deeply exploring the subject matter. However, although he clearly has a gift for storytelling, Dalio's attempt creates something that may be difficult or impossible for most of his audience to relate to. Those of us with bipolar have the same experience when watching this movie as the boomer generation has when watching Forrest Gump - constantly saying to ourselves, "Wow, yeah, I remember that." Everyone else sees something very different, and I could easily understand if the majority of people who see this movie either don't understand it or find it mediocre.

It may be a while before the world is really ready for this movie. Psychology is still a fairly new subject that has only been studied in depth by more than just a few people for the last sixty years or so. I do hope the day will soon come when bipolar disorder will be much better understood by everybody. If that day ever does arrive, then and only then will this movie ever become the classic that I believe it deserves to be.

Love and mania and the love of mania -- these are some of the powerful themes explored in this gritty movie about bipolar states of being. The fine script inspired solid performances from the lead and supporting cast alike. They wanted to make this movie and gave it everything they had to tease out the difficult material that was presented in this film. It will probably not be to everyone's taste but if you are looking for a movie that challenges you to examine what society calls 'mental illness' and how that label affects those thus labeled and the difficult relationships that these people have with those who love them most, "Touched with Fire" is definitely a show that you want to check out.

It would be too depressing to make a movie that hews too close to reality when it comes to the bipolar mind because an unwatchable tragedy just seems inevitable; "Touched with Fire" takes the audience close to where they would turn away but manages to inject enough hope to keep you going. And that is the central tension in the film -- a glimmer of hope when all appears to be lost. Many people would disagree and say that this picture is too depressing, but I tend to think that these people want movies to narcotize them with a massive dose of feel-goodism.

Otherwise, for the few grown ups out there, this movie is worthy of your time.