Touches You

Such a frustrating disappointment

This is a tender, generous movie that likes its characters and presents them as real people, full of flaws and strengths.

Blistering performances.

I don't get why anyone would like this. The deep flaws in the film-making could not be overlooked by me, at all, to care about the topic at hand. Do not like the structure of multiple apparently-unrelated stories, and (without giving away spoilers) one key one was a long slog to find how it ties in. In a way that doesn't really help with the overall message of the film and was so poorly done some reviewers didn't even /notice/ it. I found it inconsistent. Some trying to be really filmic and lovely, but a lot of NBC Prime Time TV level photography and staging also. Acting is mostly awful, and casting is mismatched. JK Simmons is awesome, but he always is. Many others felt like the second table read instead. But, that may be partly as the roles are written oddly. I never bought Gyllenhaal's character at all, and his acting was less torn than disaffected. Meryl Streep was arch, and nothing else. Omar Metwally was never really believable when he's one of the people we needed to latch onto as he's the one the horrible things are happening to. I guess having Reese Witherspoon as the wife is supposed to be our other Western anchor, but she acts like a Lifetime Movie wife. Too supervillainy. Not a political statement that it paints the US in a bad light, but that very, very high up people personally handle individual cases, and skip the chain of command to micromanage while wearing their all white suits or ballgowns.

Hollywood hired a few good actors (including Meryl Streep, known for her political positioning and agenda) hoping to attract viewers to a propaganda movie against torture procedures used by USA (waterboarding etc). It could have been a good propaganda movie but unfortunately for them the movie is bad so it made less money than it has cost Hollywood to make it. Probably they will make a few Deadpool movies to cover the loses. It is a boring movie with a bad script, bad directing and not worth the time to watch it even if you don't pay for it.

One of the better movies that I have seen concerning terrorism. This is a very well-done movie about fear and prejudice. I like that the movie never addresses exactly how the telephone calls occurred.I also wonder how many people really understand the ending, where the CIA guy (Gyllenhaal) sneaks the guy out of prison onto a small cargo ship. I really wonder how many people understand the implications of that.You CANNOT let someone who is innocent go free. If you torture the guy and he turns out to be innocent, you MUST KILL HIM! Because... What would happen if people found out that you tortured an innocent guy? If you torture a guy, and he turns out to be innocent... You MUST KILL HIM!That is a bone-chilling reality that is brought to light in this film.

...for endurance. He/she played through the whole movie. Whereas good movies reserve the long, drawn-out, 'sad violin' music for a climax that is surprising, or amazing (or whatever), this movie had to play that climactic music throughout - because the acting was just so bad. SOMEONE/SOMETHING had to have emotion! Describing the performances as 'wooden' would be too kind, and also an affront to nice wood. Which accent did Meryl Streep have during the film? Depends on what scene you're watching. When is Jake Gyllenhaal doing his best Ryan Gosling 'stone face' impression? Pretty much any scene he is in. I could go on, but I'm wasting time...and I've already wasted 2 hours and 2 minutes on this dreck...