Touches You

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.

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.

Romulus Ledbetter (Samuel L. Jackson) is mentally ill and living in a cave in a NYC park. He studied piano at Juilliard but is now obsessed with a supposed tormentor named Stuyvesant on top of the Chrysler Building. His daughter Lulu (Aunjanue Ellis) is a beat cop who is ashamed of his condition. Then he finds a guy frozen nearby. Street friend Matthew tells Romulus that the guy died because of a famous photographer David Leppenraub (Colm Feore). Romulus resolves to prove the murder by finding a tape of Leppenraub torturing the guy.Jackson is terrific playing crazy. It's a compelling character which reminds me of Robin Williams in The Fisher King. The murder mystery is a bit slow. It struggles to keep the investigation interesting. Instead, it's stuck dealing with all of Romulus' delusions. It may be useful for him to have a sane companion helping with the investigation.

Let it be clarified that this is not a film about a murder mystery. This is a film about a man named Romulus, a genius gone mad, with plenty of heart and truth still left in him that others refuse to see. It just so happens that his redemption comes in the form of his getting caught up in a murder mystery.And really, the way it all goes is pretty perfect. Everything in this film was done right. I haven't been left speechless by a movie in quite some time.Watch this film - and without spoiling anything, I want to address some other comments people have left either in a review or in the forum. Some have said that the central focus of Rom's craziness (the man in the building he thinks is watching his every move) is presented and resolved ambiguously and without any clarity. I don't understand how this could have been misunderstood. Take everything in throughout this film. The sights, the sounds, the pacing - the answer to that question is pretty clear by the time you're a good ways into the film. What's more, the film holds your hand out of it, with a CLEAR and SPOKEN answer at the end of the film (the bar scene).Anyway, great, great film. 8/10

It's not really a cave. It's more like a rock shelter. But whatever we call it, it is home to Romulus Ledbetter (Samuel L. Jackson), a sensitive, and sometimes delusional, homeless man in Manhattan. One winter morning, he discovers a dead man outside his abode. But who is this person, and how did he end up outside of Romulus' cave? Or, could the dead man be just another one of Romulus' delusions? The rest of the film follows Romulus, in his quest to solve the mystery.One of the film's strengths is Jackson's fine performance. With his long curly locks, his dark and grubby attire, his distinctive way of walking, and his stutter, Jackson gives depth to his character, and entreats empathy for a group of people who are too often stereotyped as worthless.Another strength is the film's ability to contrast street life with high society. Romulus' quest carries him to society's elite. In one sequence, we see images of torture, while listening to opera. In another sequence, we see a homeless man playing classical piano to an audience of art lovers. The contrast is marvelous.The film's downside is the contrived and hokey plot, with tons of improbable occurrences. Also, secondary roles seem hollow, and exist mainly to advance the plot."The Caveman's Valentine" is worth seeing once, for Jackson's sensitive and persuasive portrayal of a homeless man. I just wish the writers could have found some other, more plausible, reason for Romulus to interact with New York City's cultural elite.

This is one seriously strange movie. I guess it had to be, since the main character are a paranoid schizophrenic. The movie runs like a weird old fashioned murder mystery. And of cause there is an investigator, our schizophrenic caveman.Thankfully the director doesn't go over board in his attempt at taking us into the messed up head of the main character. this and the fact that Samuel knows not to overplay, makes Ledbetter's mental illness believable, yet lets us see the brilliant mind he still possesses.I give the movie an 8, but still I am a little disappointed. I feel the plot lacks a few twist and turns. If it had that, then this would maybe rate as high as a 10. I also would have liked to see a little more interaction, and cooperation between Ledbetter and his daughter.Anyway, this is a well worth watching movie. I feel it takes the old murder mysteries into the modern movie world and does a decent job in revitalizing the old genre.I think you should watch this movie. Well that's all for this time.