Touches You

Absolutely the worst movie.

A Disappointing Continuation

There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.

James 'Speedy' Reedy (Nick Stahl) takes in his sister Joleen (Charlize Theron) and her daughter Tara (AnnaSophia Robb) after Joleen's boyfriend Warren gets caught growing pot. Joleen takes off with another guy. James is a hopeless slacker. He loses his job after missing work trying to find Joleen for Tara's sake. Social services puts Tara into foster care. James move into the basement of his friend Randall (Woody Harrelson). Tara runaways from her foster parents and James takes her on a road trip ending up back home with his cruel father (Dennis Hopper) on his rundown farm.There is a bit of misdirection. This turns out to be Nick Stahl's movie and his sleepwalking through his troubled life. His character is very inert in contrast to the more intriguing Charlize Theron. She doesn't get to interact with the other characters for most of the movie. AnnaSophia Robb tries to play the wild child character with mixed results. Dennis Hopper turns into a crazy character which puts to question why James would go back home. The depressed tone drags the story down despite its strong cast.

Charlize Theron produced this movie and takes the key role as the whacked out mother. While it is a key role, it still must be regarded as a supporting role. When the movie begins she and her 12 year old daughter are forced to move out of her boyfriend's place when he is arrested for dope and growing it. Their only short-term hope is to crash at her brother's spartan place, with no real plan. The daughter just wants to live the way a normal 12-year-old school girl lives but with mom that seems pretty well impossible.Nick Stahl is good as the brother, James. AnnaSophia Robb is superb as the daughter, Tara. And of course Charlize Theron is the mom, Joleen.When mom goes out one evening and never returns, things change even more. Then when James, a rather "dull" person, loses his menial job, and already 60 days behind on his rent, they have to look for even more drastic solutions. They end up taking a road trip, and that trip takes them back to the farm where his dad still lives and works the farm.Joleen had often said that she would NEVER go back to that place and we soon find out why. Dennis Hopper as Mr. Reedy, "Dad", is about the most severe person you could find. He won't allow them any rest, or vacation, he gets both of them up at the crack of dawn and requires them to work all day. Tara quickly figures out why her mom hates that place and had severed ties with grandpa. The movie examines their plight and the theme, per the title, is for the main players to see if they can quit sleepwalking through life and get on a better, happier track. By the end it appears that they will.SPOILERS: James is able to tolerate his severe dad, at least at first, because he had no choice. No money and no place to go. But one day when dad starts to beat Tara in the barn when he doesn't like her attitude, James beats him with a large shovel and kills him. He travels back to home, where Tara and Joleen are reunited, but James keeps on trucking. We don't know what happened to him.

May induce sleeping, I don't know about sleepwalking. I doubt in cause when I woke from drifting off I was still in the same chair and unfortunately still watching this movie. It goes from dry, depressing, dark and pointless to even more of the same. The acting is not very good, which is an insult to Denise Hoper, Woody Harrelson and especially Charlize Theron, I expect way more from an Academy Award winning actress. It cannot all be blamed on her performance but I ask myself, why aren't Academy Award winners more picky about the movies they choose post winning. This film is another example of a trailer being better then the movie, just by watching the trailer and having this cast, most directors could make a better movie. I'm honestly trying to think of a positive but I'm just coming up empty. I mentioned in my review for The Love Guru about bias towards comedies and that they automatically get a lower ratting because they are comedies. I feel this is sometimes the same way with dramas, sometimes they really do suck, but because they deal with emotions and imitate real life situations they automatically get a higher ratting then they deserve.

I watched this movie because I like AnnaSophia Robb a lot. I think she is an actress with a great potential and she is so cute too. She was "almost OK" but the movie wasn't. It started very bad and finished ten times worst.The movie is pointless, too slow and boring. It makes you sleep... and very deeply.The character of Nick Stahl was terrible and so stupid. It had some awful scenes like the fight with his father or when the boss got fired him. I think Charlize Theron is a great actress but in this movie was very bad too.Watch this movie only if you suffer insomnia. It can help you. Otherwise watch something else...