Touch

A comedy that tries a little too hard to be offbeat. Ulrich is Juvenile, an oblivious ex-Franciscan monk who has the power of stigmata. He can heal those he touches.

Walken is a religious profiteer who attempts to make a few bucks of Juvenile by elisting Fonda's help. The tongue-in-cheek satire does not mix well its use of slapstick, and most of the jokes end up flopping around on the floor for a few moments too long.

No one seems to be having much fun in their roles, except for Tom Arnold, who's having too much fun as the annoying christian extremist trying to bring people to the old ways of worship. His energetic idiocy succeeds all too well in annoying.

Interesting characters and a great cast, but the script really left them with nowhere to go. Bridget Fonda was lovely and I will check out her work in other films (last one of hers I saw was Doc Hollywood in 1991). Will also keep a lookout for Skeet Ulrich who brought a nice blend of charm and mystique to the role of the central character. Christopher Walken is competent as usual, but this is not the sort of part I enjoy seeing him play. Tom Arnold did a good job as the obsessed religious fanatic. I found the labeling of this movie as a comedy strange, but it is hard to say how else it should be categorized. It is definitely a subtle and wry brand of humor. I don't think I laughed aloud even once. One thought provoking thing about the movie is that it shows that people can do good things without being wholly good, and bad things without being wholly bad. That may sound obvious, but too often movie characters are one-dimensional. For example if someone is exploitive (especially in a comedy), they also turn out to be evil to the core. A better script with some added time for plot development would have made this a much more satisfying picture.

`You are an odour in the nostrils of God,' jabbers religious zealot August Murray (Tom Arnold). He is damning sometime revivalist Bill Hill's (Christopher Walken) cynical marketing of Christ-like figure Juvenal (Skeet Ulrich essentially playing Edward Scissorhands minus the blades). Hill wearing a glitzy gold jacket and an enormous `Thank You Jesus' necklace sees a book deal and a slot on the awful Debra Lusanne Show (Gina Gershon superb at mimicking Ricki Lake with a snarl) for the innocent healer, who has stigmata on his rib cage.

In lesser hands than Paul Schrader, Elmore Leonard's non-crime novel could have become an overwrought toil in the evils of America's salacious media. However, Touch is actually a wryly amusing and unhurried look at faith and exploitation. The histrionics and belly laughs are bestowed upon the cameos, who obviously capture the best lines: `Do they make condoms that protect the soul' (Arnold) and `Controversy is the oxygen I breathe' (Gershon). Ultimately, best savoured on video. --Ben Walsh

"Touch" sticks Ulrich at the center as a young man with stigmata and maybe something more...healing power, the second coming, whatever. Around him are sundry characters ranging from mildly peculiar to very peculiar who want to use his questionable power to suit their own agendas. This unfortunate flick appears to be telling a story but fizzles in the end. A very unsatisfying, forgettable watch and a waste of a good cast. In short, a flop.

Don't be fooled by the subject matter - an ex-monk, who can heal the sick by touching them, but suffers stigmata each time and gets caught up in a whirl of religious fanatics, big-business evangelists and ratings-hungry media - this is a sweet and touching romantic comedy!

Leave it to Paul Schrader to find a way to do some heavy soul-searching without getting heavy-handed, yet always remaining quirky as we know him from his dramas. A wonderful supporting cast (Christopher Walken, Tom Arnold, Janeane Garofalo, Lolita Davidovich and Gina Gershon) adds color and texture to the story without detracting from the quiet chemistry going on between Skeet Ulrich and Bridget Fonda. When Ulrich says without grandeur that he believes in God and miracles, you don't even think twice about it - you believe every word he says at face value. A rare performance.