Touches You

A Masterpiece!

It's not great by any means, but it's a pretty good movie that didn't leave me filled with regret for investing time in it.

I really wanted to like this movie. I feel terribly cynical trashing it, and that's why I'm giving it a middling 5. Actually, I'm giving it a 5 because there were some superb performances.

Sweet little movie which could've easily been titled "Max's Bar". It stars John Saxon as a badly damaged man, Roary, whose suicide attempt left his body crippled in that his back is twisted(Saxon's ability to convince us wholeheartedly of this is a major accomplishment he desires mucho accolades)affecting the way he walks. He enters into a bar, meeting a bartender named Jerry(David Morse) with a bum knee, linked to a junk whore named Anne(Amy Wright). With 10 grand, Roary sees fit to use his cash to help pay of the debt owed on Max's Bar, and with his assistance, the business takes off. Jerry, his mouth getting the best of him, challenges a star basketball player for the Golden State Warriors, Alvin Martin(Harold Sylvester), to a round of ball and almost beats him, setting off a sequence of events he couldn't have dreamed of..thanks to Roary, who becomes Jerry's loyal and honorable pal. Jerry's Achilles' heel is Anne who returns to him after a stint with a vicious pimp, Lucius(Tony Burton). Lucius and his goons batter Jerry, with Anne returning to him. So Jerry gives up on life and it's to Roary's credit that he is snapped out of his depression and given a new lease..a talk with Alvin, and Roary might help Jerry follow a dream.Richard Donner's Inside Moves is about dreams, and not forgetting those who helped you along the way. With such a wonderful cast, including a superb supporting group, bar loungers who share a common cordial friendship with each other, such as Bill Henderson(..as wheel-chair bound Blue Lewis), Stinky(Bert Remsen, as the blind joker, always tickling the funny bones of his gang), and Wings(Harold Russel, the vocal leader of the boys, with no hands..many will remember him from The Best Years of Our Lives), I couldn't help but embrace them. Steve Kahan is Donner regular, Burt, a bartender/waiter(who later was the boss of Danny Glover and Mel Gibson in the Lethal Weapon movies)and Jack O'Leary is bar owner Max, who wouldn't increase taxes on his customers which caused his financial troubles.This is the kind of movie which tugs on the heartstrings, it's a gentle, caring film without a bad bone in it's body. Tony Burton's pimp creates the only real violence in the movie, and he's drawn into this story's little setting by good-for-nothing Anne, who leeches on naive Jerry for drug money. The camaraderie among the cast is genuine and pleasant. The budding romance between Roary and a waitress, Louise(..portrayed by Diana Scarwid) only injects more sparks into an already luminous film. Good use of street locations, one of Richard Donner's most off-beat and smaller scaled pictures..very invested in the characters. While I've always responded in kind to Donner's explosive actioners, it's nice to know he could make such an endearing film. Any other time and John Saxon's character would've been exploited as an object of ridicule or comedy. I can't believe I have never even heard of this movie before..go figure. Saxon is the heart and soul of the movie and his work with Scarwid and Morse simply works wonders.

It's been many years since I've seen this film, but I've never forgotten it. There's little I can offer in terms of praise that hasn't already been posted here by other commentators.It's a film about adversity, finding friendship, and finding the inner strength to rebuild and embrace life for what it is. It's a film that shows people with physical disabilities in a very normal light, showing them to be neither noble-handicaps nor pitiful cripples, but as normal everyday folks with all the faults and good points of humanity. It's a film about coping with one's own decisions, and overcoming life's challenges.There's some mild profanity, and references to adult situations, as well as some violence, so be warned ahead of time. It's a film the likes of which I have not seen since, and am hopeful that it'll see a DVD release someday. Until then we'll just have to wait :-(In the meantime if you get a chance to view it, then do so :-)

John Savage provides us with another look at his exceptional talent with perhaps his finest performance since The Deerhunter, with a supporting cast including Oscar-nominated Diana Scarwid and another of my favorites, David Morse. A truly feel-good movie, directed by Richard Donner, that explores the depths of human emotion while depicting the sometimes comedic, sometimes heartwrenching stories of characters who are all crippled, either physically, mentally, or morally. It is a great mystery to me why this movie has not been made available on DVD, and if I knew how to achieve its release, I would be relentless in my pursuit of that goal!

At the time when this film was produced, a movie of this type was not well accepted. Who wants to watch sorry people? But,John takes this roll and you become the observer of a wonderful transition and the the people that make it happen. A film that you want good things to happen and they do. Well worth seeing. JAR