If you like to be scared, if you like to laugh, and if you like to learn a thing or two at the movies, this absolutely cannot be missed.

One of the best movies of the year! Incredible from the beginning to the end.

The thing I enjoyed most about the film is the fact that it doesn't shy away from being a super-sized-cliche;

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

Touch the Sound: A Sound Journey With Evelyn Glennie (2004): Dir: Thomas Riedelsheimer / Featuring: Evelyn Glennie, Fred Frith, Jason the Fogmaster, Roger Glennie: Compelling idea for a documentary about the mystery of sound and its affect on people. Directed by Thomas Riedelsheimer who introduces Evelyn Glennie as an almost deaf musician who experiences life through sound. Traveling around the world she visits schools where she demonstrates a whole new way to relate to sound. She instructs one student to strike a drum while her hand and arm feels the vibration. She travels to odd locations such as a farm where ruins prospect much life for sound with various objects. Glennie herself is an expressive sort who cannot always explain her feelings and reactions to various sounds yet her face mirrors her pleasure in discovering new sound and variations. She is the main human focus of the film while others are more brief. This is intriguing but also somewhat boring as she spends endless time usually in one place too long as if beating us over the head with its theme over and over would get the word out about this film. Viewers can share in her joy and enthusiasm but not with the film that propelled from it. The result is an intriguing and curious film that often drags through long segments that seem to go on forever in order to touch our senses to sound. Score: 5 ½ / 10

I found this movie completing inspiring. The director did a magnificent job of blending visual metaphors for sound throughout.This is a documentary about the only woman percussionist who happens to have a 90 percent hearing loss. She uses her body to sense the slightest movement in sound waves and creates amazing rhythms, sounds and melodies.Don't expect a quick start, but hang in there, this is rich, rich film, full of wisdom about the senses, sound, music and life. Definitely not for someone interested in the usual musical documentary or superficial treatment of a topic.

"Touch the Sound" is beautiful in the same way the wind-drifting plastic bag of "American Beauty" is beautiful. It is simple and profound, and even though it is right in front of us, we somehow cannot manage to see it. This movie is an experience, not in the sense of a journey, but rather, something you must feel in order to connect with. Movies like this keep us in touch.Everything has sound, and thus for Evelyn, everything is an instrument. No exceptions. Cans, bottles, rope, sections of aluminum, a snare drum, the sidewalk…everything. Maybe the only thing more impressive than her actual musical abilities is the open-mindedness of the people who watch her play these obscure instruments. The film takes us from Japan to New York to England to Santa Cruz, where we find a diverse group of cultures united by music. Or maybe it is something deeper than that."We need to eat, we need to sleep, and we need music." This is Evelyn's philosophy, one which she most certainly lives by. Evelyn is a woman who plays her percussion instruments barefooted in order to feel the vibrations they cast, so it is no stretch to say she quiet literally has a feel for what she is doing. She is a wonderful musician, who makes such a connection with her music that it is as if the music is not being heard through her ear, but rather resounding throughout her body.The most engaging moments in the film are found through the improvisations performed by Evelyn and fellow musician Fred Firth, who she has never met before. They create the soundtrack of the film through their willingness to experiment and explore with any and every combination of variances on traditional guitars and percussion instruments.Although I very much enjoyed the film, I did find that there were a few too many visual "sounds" where as a viewer I found the underlying message to be too apparent. Nevertheless, "Touch the Sound" is worth a watch, even if you are not a musician; its is simple, enjoyable and leaves us with a sense of inner harmony.

Thomas Redelsheimer's beautifully crafted documentary is patient, precise, and exquisitely tuned into the subject matter. It's so refreshing to see a masterfully shot and thoughtfully edited documentary, especially after sitting through such overrated, uninspiring, and clumsily shot and edited mediocrities like Control Room and Born into Brothels. Redelsheimer is, like Errol Morris, one of the few documentary filmmakers today who seem to truly care about the art of non-fiction cinema. He also believes an audience can make intuitive leaps, guided by sound and images, that bring them so much closer to the soul of his subject. In this case, Evelyn Glennie, a deaf master percussionist, invites the director and his crew into her meditative world that allows her to literally "hear" with her body. Redelsheimer captures some unbelievably beautiful natural moments of picture and sound, and juxtaposes them with his own soulful artistic skill. A must-see for lovers of documentaries who appreciate the potential of the genre.