Touches You

everything you have heard about this movie is true.

There are better movies of two hours length. I loved the actress'performance.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

There were several reasons why I found this film interesting and amusing: A. I could have been Al Fountain. How many times have I been told 'You can't see the forest for the trees?' B. Lisa Blount didn't look much different than she did in 'An Officer and a Gentleman' but Catherine Keener looked 'cute' and much younger than she did in 2000, not many years after 'Box of Moonlight' was released. I wish they had all skinny-dipped, but Catherine Keener '...won't do that..' (a line from a Meat Loaf song).C. Sam Rockwell was superb; Turturro played the straight man to a 'T.' This film must have held my interest because it seemed to be a 'short.' Any time a film goes by too quickly, in my opinion, it has to be a winner. Do you feel the same way?

It's interesting how different people can look at the same thing and come away with such diverse reactions. I decided to watch this based on the many positive comments I had read. Unfortunately I cannot pitch my tent in that camp, since this movie never engaged me.John Turturro plays Al Fountain, an uptight electrical engineer who is away from home and in charge of a construction crew somewhere in the southeast US. When Al catches his crew having some fun fifteen minutes before knocking off for the day, he instructs them to get back to work. The sight of Tutturro in a hard hat being taken seriously by a bunch of burly construction workers should have alerted me that this movie was going to be part fantasy, and that turned out to be the case. The first part of the movie is spent in showing us what a nerd Al is. A closet full of neatly hung white shirts and dark pants, nightly calls home at precisely 9:00 PM, an inability to get along with ordinary people, stilted phone conversations with his wife and son, and so forth. Obviously Al needs to be shown how to loosen up a bit and appreciate the wondrous variety of experience, and sure enough Al meets just the right person to introduce him to more abundant living, The Kid. The Kid (Sam Rockwell), in buckskins, is a rifle-toting young lad wearing a coonskin hat who deals in selling such items as plastic deer and garden gnomes. Through a sequence of unlikely events Al winds up staying at The Kid's house--a facing wall opening onto an open-air courtyard that is lighted like it is decorated for a large Christmas party. The Kid frequently comments that he is off the grid, so how he powered his lights and television puzzled me. There are elements of pure fantasy, such as Al's seeing things in reverse like water being poured into a glass or a kid riding a bicycle. Why these irrelevant scenes were in there escaped me. In the director's commentary he remarks that these scenes were filmed by running the sequences backward. Who would have imagined that? I realize that questioning the believability of anything here is not to accept what I perceive is meant to be quirky whimsy. But I could not accept the absurdities presented.And what are the rewards of living a more carefree life? Such things as shooting out expensive window glass, jumping into lakes naked, cheating on your wife, shooting holes in tubs of paint, getting beat up while others stand around watching helplessly, eating crushed Oreo cookies and milk for breakfast, and so forth. Is an argument being made here for the value of being a nerd, and staying a nerd?

John Turturro has no problem morphing into a midlife crisis family man. The problem is not with John Turturro, the problem is a free form script that goes nowhere. This movie is just plain boring, especially the redundant swimming hole scenes. Dermot Mulroney's character is far from believable. I mean living in the woods with your half-house entirely exposed to the elements is beyond ridiculous. Mulroney is unlikable and uninteresting. At 112 minutes the movie just plods along from one boring scene to the next. Bizarre is alright if the characters lead somewhere, but "Box of Moonlight", like a dog chasing it's tail goes nowhere. - MERK

Could be spoilers.I loved this film, but then again I liked the Real Blonde and Living in Oblivion. I think you have to be the right kind of person to watch this film, someone who likes to watch something that can really happen and how people find moments of epiphany in very simple acts and objects. Like the Box of Moon Light, life is what you make it, you can see the box full of something, or think catching moonlight in a box is stupid, but that means that are two kinds of folk out there.The characters are interesting as the main character tries to find a lake area he once had fun at as a child. He finds the lake polluted and as he leaves, he helps a guy with his car and then the adventure starts. The director has a way of making the normal seem quirky and I enjoy that.The video box on this one is a bit misleading though and says it is a romantic comedy. It is more of a road picture with much road. It is more about The Kid and Al's friendship than it is about Floaty and other romantic interests. Plus, I don't think Catherine Keener or Dermot Mulroney clocked in enough scene time to be on the box when Sam Rockwell wasn't. The movie, up to the last 10 minutes or so, is about Al and The Kid.Or yeah and I kept laughing myself silly seeing those huge flash cards Al's son has. He tells him to get some flash cards and they are HUGE. I was like, "wow, those are some insanely large cards you got there son!"Little things like that, the deer in the car with Al, Doris the key lady, etc, make the film very charming. Worth a few watches, as are all of DiCillo's movies. 9/10 for me.