Review of Touch Me Not

I really wanted to like this movie. The premise seemed intriguing, and divergent opinions (when clearly thought out, and not basic "genius" or "garbage" labels) usually signal the movies I want to (and should) watch. The framing, lighting and even music (can't go wrong with Einsturzenden Neubauten) are very good, and the movie starts out well enough on its exploration of intimacy and distance. Its a bit predictable that it veers into sex-based themes (a la "Eyes Wide Shut", if that film were really trying), which I suspect may have annoyed some people. Although I thought it was not "earned", That didn't bother me at all, the (excruciatingly) slow pacing, the connection between scenes, the underdeveloped characters that are hard to identify with (with one or two exceptions) and the fragmented editing did. It's hard to reach intimacy without, at the same time, building walls even as they are being torn down, and life can be slow, fragmented, unconnected, hard to identify with and underdeveloped. But its the map vs. territory argument: a film is not life. My main issue is that this is a film that clearly seemed profound to the filmmaker and actors, and I'm almost positive that the experience of making it was enlightening to them. But it seemed like a private, hermetic, enlightenment. As a viewer I would have to have been interested in the characters and situations; somehow invested in what little developments did happen. And, in the end, to me they weren't really all that interesting.