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Touch the Sound

EMAILPRINTShadow Distribution

Touch the Sound reviews
75
7.4 User Score:

Generally favorable reviews

Based on 18 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

Based on 5 votes
Read user comments
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Movie Info

Genre(s): Documentary  |  Foreign

Written by:

Directed by: Thomas Riedelsheimer

Release Date:
Theatrical: September 7, 2005

Running Time: 99 minutes, Color

Origin: Germany / UK

Summary

RATING: Not Rated

Through the rhythms of Evelyn Glennie we touch the sound – we feel the beat of the universe. Thomas Riedelsheimer takes us on an expedition with Scottish percussionist Evelyn Glennie into the center of the sound world – a journey involving each of our senses. See, Feel, Embrace the sound. Evelyn’s postcards from her journey across the world feed into the creation of music from the interior of one of the most unique perspectives of sound and image on the planet. (Shadow Distribution)

What The Critics Said

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

90

Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan

A potent and imaginative creative biography of virtuoso percussionist Glennie.

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83

Seattle Post-Intelligencer Bill White

A lesson in listening.

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80

TV Guide Ken Fox

Innovative sounds and striking visuals combine to form an exquisite cinematic work.

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80

Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern

The celebrated percussionist Evelyn Glennie is the subject of a wonderful documentary called Touch the Sound, although calling her a percussionist is like calling Brancusi a demolitionist.

80

The New York Times Stephen Holden

This is synergy of a high order.

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80

LA Weekly F. X. Feeney

The film's discretion short-circuits any impulse we might have to regard Glennie as a handicapped person who has “overcome.” Instead, we're led to experience her life as she does - as an adventure in which setbacks are not challenges, but illuminations of untracked paths.

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80

The Hollywood Reporter Sheri Linden

Touch the Sound is at least as inspiring and in some ways more rewarding, thought-provoking and subtly visceral.

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80

Village Voice Leslie Camhi

It's rare that a documentary conveys an artist's worldview so compellingly, but then Glennie is no ordinary musician.

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75

New York Daily News Jack Mathews

The result is a feast for the senses.

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75

Chicago Tribune Michael Wilmington

Beautifully shot and filled with gorgeous music.

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75

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

Riedelsheimer, earlier made "Rivers and Tides" (2002), about another artist from Scotland, Andy Goldsworthy, whose art involves materials found in nature...Evelyn Glennie and Andy Goldsworthy have in common a profound sensitivity to their environments.

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75

New York Post V.A. Musetto

Call this a profile in courage.

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75

Portland Oregonian M. E. Russell

The juxtapositions can be beautiful: haunting music played over a water-streaked windshield, a deaf student awakening to the "feeling" of sound, Glennie staring ferociously at a gong as she extracts its vibrations.

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70

Chicago Reader Jonathan Rosenbaum

Evelyn Glennie has worked with everyone from Bjork to Brazilian samba groups and also gives solo concerts, and the best segments simply show her at work in her mid-30s, explaining what she does.

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70

The Onion (A.V. Club) Noel Murray

May be too heady to take in one sitting. Even given relatively calm passages-like a hushed tour through the courtyard of a Scottish castle or a mediation on ripples in a pond-there's just too much to absorb.

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70

Variety Eddie Cockrell

Fans of the Grammy-winning musician will revel in the proximity to their idol, though second pic from talented helmer Thomas Riedelsheimer plays a tad long to those unfamiliar with his, or her, work.

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60

Washington Post Tim Page

Unfortunately, a good deal of Touch the Music"is devoted to vacuous interviews with Glennie, who seems positively incapable of saying anything substantial. Nor is most of the music very good.

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50

San Francisco Chronicle Joshua Kosman

There is a maddening sense of dislocation through much of the movie -- a feeling that genuinely fascinating questions have been squeezed out by woo-woo philosophizing and material (like Glennie's brief return to the family farm) of only minor import.

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What Our Users Said

The average user rating for this movie is 7.4 (out of 10) based on 5 User Votes

Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Kolton V. gave it a5:
The movie put me to sleep and were it not for a school project I'd have turned it off in the first 30 minutes. I loved the idea but the director reminded me of a child with ADD uncertain of what he wanted and always demanding it.

Julio P. gave it a10:
At three-quarters of the way through the film I felt such an ecstasy as to make any kind of drug-induced euphoria seem trivial. This is the greatest kind of movie -- the kind that speaks to us on every level.

Steve F. gave it a4:
She's deaf? I've worked w/ hundreds of deaf people, from hard of hearing to deaf as a fence post and - w/o exception - they have all had ''the deaf accent'' to one degree or another. I found it very distracting & a serious strain on her credibility every time she spoke (which was often & at length) w/o a trace of the deaf accent. If indeed she is ''profoundly deaf'', as so described several times, then her extraordinary, super-human, unparalleled command of every nuance of a language she cannot hear is a far more interesting story than the one told. Given the credibility issues, I found it increasingly difficult to finish watching.

James N. gave it a10:
Fascinating music--fine photography and editing--an inspiration (especially to anyone with a disability)!!!

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