Touches You

Memorable, crazy movie

Highly Overrated But Still Good

It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

I found this movie on Netflix, thinking, 'ooooh, good, a recent movie out about ghosts, something I have a keen interest in. But GOD, it's slow to start, almost every scene there's either no dialogue at all, or very little-there is very little action to keep your interest. I was hoping for a modern day 'Ghost' (Patrick Swayze and Demi Moore) movie with a main character who suddenly dies fairly young, and how the woman he leaves behind deals with her grief, while eventually realizing that his spirit is still with her. Nope...this movie doesn't go into that kind of plot line. You will be struggling to continue watching, because it's one big dull bore! I found that the pie eating scene where it shows his widow stressfully eating a pie for 6-7 minutes ridiculously long. The sequence of scenes like this takes more than twice as long as a scene in normal movie scenes does. And once he 'rises from the dead' on the hospital gurney and after his widow leaves, he continues to wear the death sheet that had covered him, all throughout the rest of the movie. It's rather reminiscent of when Charlie Brown goes out on Halloween night in a ghost sheet, complete with circles cut out for the eyes. Ridiculous! It even stands looking out the window, sees a ghost also draped in a white sheet also looking out through it's house's window nearby, and they 'communicate' via sub titles.Other scenes are rather strange and completely disconnected from the storyline. Like when he's STILL in the house, STILL wearing the bed sheet, while a bull dozer is crashing into his house, long vacant and in major disrepair after he made the previous owners, a Spanish family leave after he did the usual freaky ghost stuff- hurling their dishes and cups towards them while they're eating their dinner. Then a minute later, the house is gone and there's a giant highrise that's built there where the house was.A minute or two later, he appears to go back in time and it shows a country scene that dates back more than a 100 years, and we see a pioneer family dressed in Little House type clothing. He just sits around in the ghost sheet observing them until the scene where they're all lying around dead with arrows in them, obviously massacred by Indians. Rather disturbing. And then fast forward to him sitting on the floor in his empty house. Like, HUH??!I think I could have written a much better ghost movie than this giant bore. Don't bother renting it, buying the DVD, or watching it on Netflix.

Don't expect a typical horror movie, don't expect a ghost story, this is a story about a ghost. As we follow along the ghost of a man, the movie portraits the loneliness we associate to death, both on the living, who go on, and the dead. Grief is closely observed, almost voyeuristicly, and that is scary and disturbing as hell. Being left in this world "alone" by the one you love is definitely one of the most horrible things one can experience. And that's what horror is all about. On another hand, we see the utter loneliness of someone who dies. We will all have to cross that final door, completely alone. I mean, while we're greeted and cheered on upon entering this world, there's that dread, specially for the non-religious, that we'll be completely alone in the end. That is also what horror is all about. We have the opportunity to understand the logic of the ghost's voyage, from the director's perspective. What the ghost had to do to move on. What we will possibly have to do. And that's somewhat hopeful, the fact that the movie hints there's somewhere to move on to. But nothing too specific. And we can never be sure, right? You'd have to be pretty naive if you were expecting the ending to give you some straightforward answers. Life and death don't give you answers. All you can do is take it one day at a time and take long walks by the sea and spend time laughing and loving. Because life will always end up against a brick wall, no matter what. That's the only clear message the movie leaves us with, told us by that random guy at the party. Other than that we can only watch and let those feelings sink in and grow up a little. Learn something. And turn tomorrow into a good day.

Well lets start, this movie is one if not the best movie i've watched it starts showing us a scene where the two characters show some deep love between them thus showing us why the sudden loss of one of them is so hard on the other then we see as the ghost of the deceased men rises up as the simplest ghost possible a sheet with two holes for eyes then we see as he goes back to the home where he used to reside just to find her partner sad about his loss then we see as she starts eating some pie wich was left over by a

It seems this has a very polarising effect upon the general audience. I'll admit it was a slow start to establish the tone and themes. Once the plot takes effect you start to really feel the effect of time upon the protagonist. This is such a subtle film in so many ways I'm not surprised it went over many peoples heads. Everything from the aspect ratio, the lingering shots, the chunks of visual storytelling peppered throughout the film, the musical score really drew me in and deeply touched me. This is very much a story about how time can effect our place in the world, and as cynical as it might sound, time passes and we are forgotten, but the film makes it sort of beautiful and touching. Even behind the white sheet Casey Affleck has a strong heartfelt presence.I wondered why Casey Afflecks character didn't follow his partner and decided to remain in the home throughout decades/100's of years. Once I understood that the history he has in the house keeps him there and how he was determined to linger in that spot till the cyclical nature of time in this world comes around again it was quite touching. Rooney Mara's character was somewhat different in that she does not see there being much history in their home, which i think alludes to their problematic relationship. So for me the film is about the impact we have in the surroundings we live in and how it can be remembered/forgotten/discarded and how we feel the need to never let go of that. It's a poignant visual representation of that theme and the camera lingers on many of these scenes just like we as humans desire to linger on the places and people we identify with, brilliant film