Touches You

Excellent but underrated film

When a movie has you begging for it to end not even half way through it's pure crap. We've all seen this movie and this characters millions of times, nothing new in it. Don't waste your time.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

I really could never have imagined that it would be possible to make a movie adaptation based on the Mary Norton books that would be so completely devoid of charm. When the estate licensed this adaptation, they made a terrible, terrible mistake.It's vile. I would have rated it a zero, but the scale only goes down to 1.

I consider myself a fan of THE BORROWERS after watching the BBC children's TV series in the early 1990s. Recently I read the original novel for the first time and enjoyed it; I also saw the fine Japanese animated adaptation of the story, ARRIETTY. So I was interested, if not a little wary, to see how this American version of the story would held up. It's worth noting that I'd never seen it before.Simply put, this is a travesty of a film and a huge disappointment for a true BORROWERS fan. Other than the central characters, the entire storyline has been jettisoned in favour of a bombastic, action-packed chase narrative in which the little people must team up to battle evil property tycoon John Goodman. This is about as far from the small-scale (pun intended) origins of the original Mary Norton story as it gets.There are a few lights twinkling away amid the garbage; I'll be the first to admit that Jim Broadbent makes for an effective Pod, and Tom Felton shines in an early role. Celia Imrie isn't bad as Homily, but she's no match for Penelope Wilton. The special effects aren't too bad for the year, and few of them scream 'obvious CGI' like so many Hollywood films today.So where did it go wrong? Well, the attempts to update the story for a modern American audience is a good start. The setting is some ridiculous 'netherworld' which mixes modern-day technology with 1950s-era Britain and America. It's ludicrous. Goodman's villain is poorly shoe-horned into the storyline and the subject of numerous fat jokes. Really? Is it right for a film to be teaching kids to constantly insult people due to their weight? The characters are badly written, the dumb humour consists of farting dogs and the like, and the whole thing has been dumbed down massively and lost the magic of the original. In the end it's just another soulless Hollywood effects piece.

Normally I am not the kind of guy who is into familymovies as they all rely a bit too much on the silly parts of the human brains so I watched it as there was nothing else on telly, not expecting one good thing from it. But I was utterly charmed by it... Not that it are little people as I saw that trick too many times (Honey I shrunk the kids, Willow or even in the fourties there was Tom Thumb) but just because of the great decors! This movie takes place in the fifties and everything is made with a huge nostalgia sense (from the cars to the food the Borrowers are borrowing). In some house a boy discovers that there are little creatures living under the floor, once the family is out they "borrow" stuff to keep their household going on and it's like Indiana Jones filmed in Disneystyle (just watch the scene in where the daughter is stuck in the refrigerator). Sadly enough the little family Clock or played by redheads who all talk in a very Irish way and they play in such an arrogant Robin Hoodway that you wanna put your feet on them the moment they catch your eyes, just like John Goodman who in slapstickstyle who plays the role of a corrupt advocate who'd stolen the testament of the family so he can build his building complex (where have we heard this before?). The big family Lender and the Borrowers join hands to rescue the house and during 90 minutes the sole option that is left for director Peter Hewitt (who is now directing Garfield) is the chase for The Borrowers in where Goodman gets the help of some funny guy whose job is exterminating insects or little creatures. This is the kind of movie that can end up like The Flinstones or Scooby Doo but director Hewitt saves it all thanks to the impressive decors, the very nice special effects and a godlike performance from Goodman (who is just doing his usual thing). Not outstanding but it feels like this movie is over in 15 minutes just because of its charming slapstickstyle. Not a monument at all but a perfect movie to relive the child in you even if most of the kids won't be happy by the childish approach (the kids of today aren't living in the fifties you know...)

i adore this movie. it gives an entirely new perspective about the world. much the same effect as "honey i shrunk the kids" had only more every day life. tables, chairs, beds, clothes. it's great. what I love is the cast. I just keep recognizing people. "he was in jumanji!" "he was in stuart little!" "he is in the harry potter movies!" "he was in moulin rouge!" i loved it. actually, this movie is worth watching just for the hair styles! ^_^