Touches You

Bad Acting and worse Bad Screenplay

This is a gorgeous movie made by a gorgeous spirit.

Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

I'm not really sure what to make of this film. The first 45 or 50 minutes are fairly unsatisfying. With good story telling you become part of the story; here I found myself watching from the outside. I found it difficult to feel empathy for anyone. No character was really particularly interesting or likable. Then there was such too much of everything happening too fast: too many murders, too many sex scenes etc. Keeley Hawes' sex scenes are very, very erotic but I can't help wondering why they are in the film. After about 50 minutes, the suspense starts kicking in and the film becomes quite interesting and well paced. Unfortunately, you also can be pretty sure who the killer really is. Suspenseful as the second half of the film may be, it's also a rather banal storyline. Ex-soldier starts killing bad people taking revenge for everything that has happened in his life or in his world. The killings are gruesome but then again it's nothing we have not seen before. One victim is displayed in a butcher's window: I saw that in an EC comic from the early 50s. The moral question at the end of the day is then how justified these murders are and that the law can never catch the real culprits. That is hardly an original thought or motive in crime films.

In Japan, this film is given the title Psycho 2001. The cover of the DVD shows a writhing figure in a bloody bathtub, apparently boiling in a stew of guts and organs after ritual disembowelment.No such scene exists in the film. This title and cover seem to be one more chapter in the harsh treatment this film has suffered at the hands of distributors.And it is undeserved treatment. This is a classy thriller, Johnny Lee Millar giving his trademark performance in moral ambiguity as a clapped-out journalist looking to break a huge scoop on government conspiracy. As he digs deeper, he finds the story becoming less about the wicked ways of the world, and more about the murky secrets of his own past.The Highland locations are well used in sweeping helicopter shots, the pacing swift as journo Cameron moves through a sea of bodies, a mysterious Deep Throat figure keeping him one step behind the bad guy(s). Brian Cox is as solid as ever, rehearsing his bad-ass law enforcer routine before Bourne. Millar stands up to a demanding role, especially in the final third when all his chickens come home to roost, and regret, anguish, atonement, cynicism and hope are all required to be shown.Complicity appears to have been overlooked by most theatres, distributors, award-givers and reviewers. A shame really, much worse British films have travelled abroad in recent years. Complicity is fraught, character-driven, quirky, kinky and pays off at the end. Well worth checking out.

Brave yet flawed adaption of Iain Banks' dark novel. The characters appear flat as they wade through some bland dialogue. Jonny Lee Miller goes through the remarkable events as if he were buying socks. The shocks and surprises fail to shock or surprise. A more full on darker thrust would have prevented this from resembling a poor episode of Taggart. Well done for having a go and well done for keeping it in Scotland rather than moving it to another locale.

I am a great Banks' fan, and was awaiting this film eagerly. I am quite disappointed, though the film would presumably, if taken at face value and not compared to the novel, be OK.[Further text might constitute mild spoilers to some readers]The first thing one notices is that most material from the book is somehow stuffed into the film (with notable exception of Cameron's cancer and Basra Road episode - sorry for referring to the novel). The result is rapid succession of events that get barely touched, not leaving room for atmosphere or, paradoxically, even decent suspense to develop. There isn't a trace of suffocating mood of the novel. Events follow each other at the pace that does not allow them to evolve and to give viewer chance to absorb them. I think that Millar and Elsley would have done much better job if given (the superb BBC TV mini-series, also after Banks) The Crow Road format.Otherwise, the film is technically good. Casting and acting is very good, with one crucial exception: IMHO, Cameron is too young, far too cheerful and devoid of air of impeding doom around him.And BTW, DVD producers should have included, under excuse of doing that for the benefit of hearing impaired, English subtitles (Scottish accent is quite difficult for non-native speakers). I plan to watch the film one or two times more to see whether my opinion will improve by simply catching more of what was said :)