Touched (II) (2005) User Reviews

Something Of A turn Off Because Of Its Content

[Theo Robertson · 4/10 · 26 September 2005]

too noticed a somewhat anti male subtext from Linda Carvalho's previous short film EVER AFTER and while it was somewhat flawed it was at least somewhat entertaining in my opinion . I'm afraid I can't really say the same about TOUCHED which deals with the very serious subject of domestic abuse

Young lawyer Menna is assaulted by her partner Thomas and the story is told is through flashback and voiced over conversation that Menna is having with her counsellor . My fellow reviewer Bob has mentioned that much of this short fails because of Sara Hunter's performance but the impression I got was that the actress is miscast , I couldn't take her seriously as a lawyer because she comes as a girl about town . I could certainly believe that she was a professional career woman , just not a lawyer . I do feel that it's Carvalho's script that's the problem , especially the narrative . For example Menna gets a phone call saying she's got to be in court in 30 minutes , she looks into the mirror and sees her bruised and battered face looking back . I was compelled to know what happened when she turned up in court looking like this but this is never followed up in anyway , and watching a woman being constantly slapped is in no way entertaining for myself or most men so as a story or as entertainment TOUCHED has failed

A worthy try but the terribly flat performances stop it dead

[bob the moo · 15 July 2006]

Having already seen "Ever After" from Carvalho, I already had an inkling that she wasn't a massive fan of men, so seeing that this next film was about domestic abuse was not the best start I could have had. Here we have Menna looking back on a relationship that turned abusive, discussing it with her therapist. It is a story that is quite intense and has potential but is significantly lessen by the failure to make a character for Menna. In this film she is basically written – with some "normal" moments and then intense moments, with nothing inbetween. It isn't all Carvalho's fault though, because Hunter doesn't convince at all – not even once; this damages the whole story because it doesn't engage in the way a real person (or convincing character rather) would. The direction is fine with some nice sets but that is not enough. I'm not sure if Carvalho is a bad director of people or if she just fills her films with so-so mates but this is the same problem as with Ever After. Anyway, this was a worthy try but it falls way short of the mark. The emotion inherent in the story is sucked out by flat performances and the inability to make Menna a convincing character.