Touched with Fire

Wow. How did I miss hearing about this movie? In the past, Katie Holmes has been hit and miss with her acting mainly due to miscasting, but here she is spot on---watch closely. Great to see her giving a masterful performance. The acting alone by both Holmes and Luke Kirby kept me watching to the end. Subject matter is a bit of a downer but fascinatingly portrayed. (Although not the focus of the plot, the movie illustrates what daily lives of people suffering from manic-depressive disorder can be like, both from trying to hold down jobs to their uncontrollable thirst for highs. And the movie succeeds in showing how even psychologically unbalanced individuals are able to fall in love.) It's the best movie on manic-depressive disorder since 'Mr. Jones' (Richard Gere, Lena Olin--which I also highly recommend for the acting!). I hope Holmes is recognized for her excellent work here.

Touched With Fire, definitely not an easy watch at times, tells the story of two young poets falling in love while battling bipolar disorder.

The cinematography can only be described as breathtaking, and the same could be said about the soundtrack. This film was truly a joy for the eyes and the ears. Katie Holmes and Luke Kirby were fantastic as the two patients, poets, lovers. The only thing that felt a bit off was the story - it felt slightly confusing at times, maybe moving a little fast?

It might have felt like something was missing from the story, but the honesty and realness made up for it. Definitely worth the watch - while being a visual treat, Touched With Fire also opened my eyes to completely new aspects of mental illness.

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.

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.

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.