Touch the Sound: A Sound Journey with Evelyn Glennie
Metascore
75 out of 100

Generally favorable reviews - based on 18 Critics

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 16 out of 18
  2. Mixed: 2 out of 18
  3. Negative: 0 out of 18
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  1. Los Angeles Times
    Reviewed by: Kenneth Turan
    90
    A potent and imaginative creative biography of virtuoso percussionist Glennie.
  2. Seattle Post-Intelligencer
    Reviewed by: Bill White
    83
    A lesson in listening.
  3. The Hollywood Reporter
    Reviewed by: Sheri Linden
    80
    Touch the Sound is at least as inspiring and in some ways more rewarding, thought-provoking and subtly visceral.
  4. TV Guide
    Reviewed by: Ken Fox
    80
    Innovative sounds and striking visuals combine to form an exquisite cinematic work.
  5. L.A. Weekly
    Reviewed by: F. X. Feeney
    80
    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.
  6. Village Voice
    Reviewed by: Leslie Camhi
    80
    It's rare that a documentary conveys an artist's worldview so compellingly, but then Glennie is no ordinary musician.
  7. The New York Times
    Reviewed by: Stephen Holden
    80
    This is synergy of a high order.
  8. Wall Street Journal
    Reviewed by: Joe Morgenstern
    80
    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.
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  9. Chicago Sun-Times
    Reviewed by: Roger Ebert
    75
    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.
  10. Chicago Tribune
    Reviewed by: Michael Wilmington
    75
    Beautifully shot and filled with gorgeous music.
  11. New York Daily News
    Reviewed by: Jack Mathews
    75
    The result is a feast for the senses.
  12. New York Post
    Reviewed by: V.A. Musetto
    75
    Call this a profile in courage.
  13. Portland Oregonian
    Reviewed by: M. E. Russell
    75
    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.
  14. The A.V. Club
    Reviewed by: Noel Murray
    70
    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.
  15. Variety
    Reviewed by: Eddie Cockrell
    70
    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.
  16. Chicago Reader
    Reviewed by: Jonathan Rosenbaum
    70
    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.
  17. Washington Post
    Reviewed by: Tim Page
    60
    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.
  18. San Francisco Chronicle
    Reviewed by: Joshua Kosman
    50
    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.

User Reviews

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User Score
7.4 out of 10

Generally favorable reviews- based on 5 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 2 out of 4
  2. Mixed: 2 out of 4
  3. Negative: 0 out of 4
  1. KoltonV.
    5
    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.… Full Review »
  2. JulioP.
    10
    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.… Full Review »
  3. SteveF.
    4
    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.… Full Review »
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