Icelandic legend Baltasar Kormákur tells an absorbing story of lost love and an unending pursuit to reclaim one’s happiness. Time, in the dramatic case half a century, does not seem to lessen the feeling of loss. Touch follows a sweet and soft character engrossed in the most intimate of mysteries during the onset of a pandemic. It wasn’t a good magic and chance or destiny should have found these wayward lovers together again. The response is just so devastatingly right that it is almost hard to fathom. The movie Touch depicts the journey of humankind in the right words. Although people we love can be sadly taken away from us, the fire of love, devotion, and friendship is not easily quenched.
Kristófer (Egill Ólafsson) is in an Iceland portrayed in a church choir, and outdoors is another bleak scenery. He comes back but could not sleep in peace because he is a little anxious. The following day, Kristófer recites poetry in Japanese and counting numbers comes to a crucial conclusion. He walks around his restaurant assessing it before then locking it to travel finally stopping briefly at the portrait of his dead spouse (Maria Ellingsen) before departing for the city airport.
This took place 51 years prior to the present-day London, with Kristófer Palmi Kormakur, a young student, staging a protest outside of his University. A big-headed student because he is an angry student a complaints . Anti-British sentiment is especially strong among those working teachers who fearlessly criticize the British authorities. During a drinking bout, his friends amusingly misclassify as communist, because Kristófer would not take the witticism. Without beating about the bush, he declares that he has decided to leave school. The laughter becomes sceptical and the questions begin. What is he going to do, go back to Iceland to catch fish?
Panic-stricken Kristófer runs out of the Pub in the torrential rain. He walks by a Japanese restaurant nearby that has a help washer sign outside. Kristófer runs into Miko Kōki who is coming out through the door. A tall student and a petite young beauty lock their gazes for a smoldering second. Takahashi-san Masahiro Motoki, Kristofers father and owner of the restaurant makes it clear that this is no part time dishwasher job. You know, someone who is eager and industrious.
Kormákur (A Little Trip to Heaven, 2 Guns, Everest) provides a masterclass on editing and pacing. Like a tightrope walker preparing for something bigger, he balances two time frames with ease extending towards more and more clarifications. The elder Kristófer is deliberately cryptic in all his interactions and terrifies his stepdaughter when she is called home, who is just heard in voicemail messages filled with concern. Why is the only guest in the hotel an old Icelander on holiday during a pandemic, the bespectacled London concierge Kieran Buckeridge asks himself. No matter how cold any of the responses are, his earnest will to locate Miko and his tired gaze gradually melt them all. However, the supporting characters are aware that such opportunity will not last long. Kristófer is going to have to turn himself into a sort of a private investigator.
In Kormakur’s early period, one of his women’s pictures features an impressive build up romantic plot with a very unsatisfying pay off. Obsessed and extremely busy Kristófer’s cooks and waiters on the other hand are praising him as a tireless steadfast warrior. He was cut off from the world of academia and its ‘theoretical and abstract’ way of life coz it more practical. In the innermost depths of the psyche – in the psyche that has been reeducated to the Japanese way of life, there is also an elegant fluttering butterfly releasing from the chrysalis. Miko sees this change with sincere tenderness.
But they were not trying to fall into each other’s arms. Where Takahashi-san’s etiquette and rules are followed there is no forgiveness. The reason as to why is quite tragic for sure but it is a big bump on the road for the young couple. The initial togetherness of having cigarette after cigarette slowly develops into something that ignites a deep sense of wanting. Physical relationships are severed but emotional scaring beats any standards as hearts would race once the boundaries are broken. Even though these scenes are not amounting graphic sexually inclined passions, they make the screen red-hot.
In Act Two, where a Professor Matthew Perry comes back into the fold, Touch turns on a generous separation that reveals even more layers of the already dense plot. The elder Kristófer’s feats of Homer seem for all his torment. Kormákur, as always, takes good care to make the obsession believable. No clichés, no cheap aha effects. Miko could be hidden anywhere. Most fears live within Kristófer’s mind, including the fear that she could not be found, and the one about the odd reason that she vanishes inexplicably. Anyone who has ever been jilted or walked out on knows this pain quite well. What did I do? Was it me launching her off? What an impressive performer Ólafsson, an actor and a singer in Iceland, is. He is a man containing and clashing with feelings but having a strong self-control. Kristófer is unable to part with Miko. Other than her nothing is important.
Touch’s climactic turn is a knockout. The conclusion of Kristófer’s extraordinary journey is quite an overwhelming trauma. Kormakurs is again, great in his performance. What would you do when you finally find out the truth? This is the other question that is cleverly embedded in the storyline. Kristófer has no clue of what is in store, after such a long duration and with so much lived in between. The Miko (Yoko Narahashi) he has found. Will she be that same girl with him when they were young? It is interesting and even mind-blowing to watch their great reunion as it meets the even highest expectations.
Kormakur is also praised because of such art enhancing Kristófer and Miko’s love with the apocalyptic loneliness of the covid pandemic. While such scenes and hearing things like: “You cannot be within 6 feet, please wear a mask and put sanitizer” are totally out of place, it’s this synaptic delight shared over the hand of tragic young lovers. Kormakur extends his focus as long as they remain in that position exchanging hugs and always holding the other’s physical support until the end showing their innocent anguish. There is no aspect of Touch which is not beautiful and poignant.
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