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Blind: Major Films  
TitleTouch (1997)
Alternative/Original Title
DisabilityAlcoholism Blind Healing
CountryUSA
Length97
GenreDrama
Rating3
DirectorPaul Schrader
CastBridget Fonda Skeet Ulrich Christopher Walken Tom Arnold
NotesAn odd film this, almost like it was directed by the Coen brothers . Except it's hard to work out what is going on because the plot appears to bifurcate and even evaporate. First off we see an alcoholic husband and his blind wife. The wife is bleeding from her forehead. In a flash a young guy, Juvenal, arrives wipes her forehead with a wet cloth and she can see again. Everything is happening so fast and at the beginning of the film you might just wonder why she says "I can see". Juvenal it turns out was a Franciscan monk for 4 years based in the Brazilian jungle until he quit. Christopher Walken is some kind of priest who wants to exploit Juvenal using Bridget Fonda as a seductress. Juvenal now works at a branch of Alcoholics Anonymous in part of a church and Fonda pretends to be drunk to gain entry. Juvenal shows her the stigmata on the palms of his hands and his side (where the Roman's spear entered). A busload of disabled children arrive at a service and he cures one who has leukaemia. However since this isn't followed up how do we know the child is cured? At one point he's interviewed on TV. Juvenal is so laid back even the director realises this is really boring and cuts away periodically to other things. Weaving throughout the 'plot' like a thread of fool's gold is Tom Arnold as a fundamentalist Christian who during the TV interview is wheeled in a fully body cast. The big problem for the audience is that the different threads don't appear connected. And of course Juvenal falls for Bridget, and loses his powers.

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