TL;DR – This is a stunningly beautiful portrait of a man’s life that feels both deeply personal and universal in what drives him. It is profoundly moving and full of narrative grace that could have been all melancholy but is instead full of heart and joy.   

Post-Credit Scene – There is no post-credit scene.

Disclosure – I was invited to a screening of this film.

Touch Review –

I know this is only August, and there are many films I will see this month, let alone by the end of the year, but today, can I say that we are looking at one of my films of the year. If not, the film of the year. This is such a stunning work that it has sat with me the whole time since I first watched it. I mean, Touch is such a beautiful film that I am getting emotional from writing about it now.

So, to set the scene, Kristófer (Egill Ólafsson) is going through the motions of his life in Iceland at the start of the COVID pandemic. He is a famous restaurateur on the island, but he has now closed his restaurant and is spending time at a local choir and trying to invoke his past diaries. But as the world starts to close up, Kristófer sets on a mission to answer one of the great questions of his past when he (Palmi Kormakur) was a young student in London and one day, he walked into a Japanese restaurant and met Miko (Kōki).

We have a lot to cover in our review today, and I wanted to start with the cast. There are no weak links in this cast. Even the small players have their moments that stand out. Egill Ólafsson and Palmi Kormakur have an unenviable job of trying to play the same persona at different times. If they didn’t feel like the same person at various points in their life, then the whole film would have fallen apart. Palmi Kormakur has that youthful energy where dumping it all and being a dishwasher in a Japanese restaurant where he can’t speak the language feels like a valid choice. Then there is Egill Ólafsson, who has hit the curmudgeon stage of his life. He has a drive that will not be stopped by anything. But while he is forceful, he is never an arse.

While there are a lot of themes here, they are used to help contextualise the world we find ourselves in. Why does Kristófer have this drive to deal with his unresolved past? Well, because he might not have that much more time to work it out. The legacy of Hiroshima and the impact of those called Hibakusha reaches throughout the film in a concerted way that I found missing in films like Oppenheimer. It is confronting but handled respectfully, even when it gets uncomfortable.

There are a lot of films that have engaged with the COVID pandemic, such as Glass Onion, which famously used it to explore its characters in how they wore their masks. However, I have yet to see a film that perfectly nails what it was like in those first few weeks when people were struggling to work out what to do. Indeed, you can nail down part of this film to almost two weeks as different parts of the world were shut down. It was this visceral reminder of that time. However, importantly, it never felt cheap. I mean, it is used for laughs at times. But it creates an intentionality for Kristófer that the film needs. It also reinforces the very title of the film Touch through both its presence and absence.   

One of the most fascinating parts of the film can be found in the editing. Throughout the film, we jump between two different timelines and some other critical moments in time. This could have been a disjointed mess. However, the way they weave their stories felt natural. Touch does not hold your hand, but it does craft its narrative in a way that feels right, like how the story should have always been told. This is crafted with a piano-focused musical score that perfectly accompanies what has come. I liked that they filmed in the places that they set the film in, giving the film a global feel. Also, it is just an impeccable shot film. I mean, it is stunning.

In the end, do we recommend Touch? Absolutely. It has the difficult path of being both melancholy and beautiful, and it nails that narrow path. The cast was delightful, the story hit me in the heart, and that beauty was a joy to watch. If you liked Touch, we would recommend to you Aftersun.

By Brian MacNamara: You can follow Brian on Twitter Here, when he’s not chatting about Movies and TV, he’ll be talking about International Relations, or the Solar System.

Have you watched Touch?, let us know what you thought in the comments below, feel free to share this review on any of the social medias and you can follow us Here. Check out all our past reviews and articles Here, and have a happy day. 


Credits – All images were created by the cast, crew, and production companies of Touch
Directed by – Baltasar Kormákur
Screenplay by – Baltasar Kormákur & Ólafur Jóhann Ólafsson
Based on – Touch by Ólafur Jóhann Ólafsson
Music by – Högni Egilsson
Cinematography by – Bergsteinn Björgúlfsson
Edited by – Sigurður Eyþórsson
Production/Distribution Companies – RVK Studios, Good Chaos, Focus Features & Universal Pictures.
Starring – Egill Ólafsson, Kōki, Palmi Kormakur, Masahiro Motoki, Sigurdur Ingvarsson, Yoko Narahashi, Masatoshi Nakamura, Meg Kubota, María Ellingsen, Eiji Mihara, Theódór Júlíusson, Starkadur Petursson, Ruth Sheen, Benedikt Erlingsson, Tatsuya Tagawa & Charles Nishikawa with  Akshay Khanna, Kieran Buckeridge, Eugene Nomura & Harpa Elísa Þórsdóttir
Rating – Australia: M; Canada: PG; Germany: na; New Zealand: na; United Kingdom: 15; United States: R