While staying at a psychiatric hospital, two poets with bipolar disorder (Katie Holmes, Luke Kirby) begin a romance that brings out all of the beauty and horror of their condition, driving each other's mania to new heights.
12 May 1951, Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, USA
26 November 1989, Brooklyn, New York, USA
14 February 1981, Yalta, Crimean Oblast, Ukrainian SSR, USSR [now Crimea, Ukraine]
4 April 1950, Birmingham, Michigan, USA
8 June 1955, New York City, New York, USA
13 August 1990, Los Angeles County, California, USA
18 December 1978, Toledo, Ohio, USA
19 October 1951, Brooklyn, New York, USA
21 October 1985, Verona, New Jersey, USA
1 March 1964, Burlington, Vermont, USA
3 July 1955, The Bronx, New York, USA
9 March 1975
15 September 1981, Worcester, Massachusetts, USA
27 January 1970, USA
January 02, 2017
Dalio, despite good intentions, does not offer the sort of lyrical artistry referred to here.
February 19, 2016
"Touched With Fire" is effective in showing the intensity of a new relationship and the barriers people build up around themselves when they take on an us-against-the-world mentality.
February 18, 2016
"Touched With Fire" raises multiple topics of discussion, then avoids eye contact when it's time for the actual conversation.
February 25, 2016
Written, directed, edited, scored, and partially lived by bipolar filmmaker Paul Dalio, this intense romantic drama solely exists to prove that his so-called "disorder" isn't a dehumanizing defect.
February 18, 2016
Dalio, who based the film (his directing debut) on his own struggles with bipolar disorder, establishes a gentle, honest tone that never wavers - and demonstrates a knack for vivid imagery that makes him a filmmaker to watch.
November 22, 2016
A rich drama about the interface between creative expression and mental illness.
May 03, 2016
Writer/director Dalio is the real deal - he's got a great eye and ear, and a way with visceral moments of abstract sound and imagery that place the viewer in his characters' headspace.
December 12, 2016
Honest and affecting.
December 19, 2016
An intense romantic drama.
February 19, 2016
Dalio's script doesn't always flow as smoothly as the camera work, but an air of calm authenticity should leave audiences touched, in a good way.
January 16, 2017
While the creative juices unleashed by bipolar disorder are somewhat romanticized in this film, the very real drawbacks and dangers of this mental condition are also explored.

