Touch review – unashamedly emotional love story travels back to the 1960s

Directed by Baltasar Kormákur, and adapted for the screen by Kormákur and Ólafur Jóhann Ólafsson from Ólafsson’s novel, Touch is defiantly unfashionable in its straightforwardness; romance fans mostly have to go looking for love nested cozily in other genres. But there are no car chases or pratfalls here; this is a love story, pure and simple and unashamedly emotional. Kormákur also understands the visual appeal of romance: it’s not just about the pillow talk or heady declarations of passion, it’s about the images, and he doesn’t stint us in that regard. Even if it’s something as simple as Kristófer and Miko taking a bus together, Kormákur’s compositions scream painterly sentiment: manly arms in a creamy woollen sweater, her head tilted to gaze up into his eyes, their fingers interlocked, the sunlight as golden as it should be.