Where Hands Touch still manages to be a well-acted historical drama that depicts World War II from a different point of view. It also retains the same theme of finding your identity that Amma Asante has demonstrated in her previous work.

| Oct 5, 2020

It is Leyna's relationship with her mother (and her own identity) that is perhaps the most moving aspect of the film. Amandla Stenberg gives a fantastic performance here as a young woman who is struggling to find her place in the world.

| Jul 2, 2020

Possibly with a different screenwriter, or even a different cast, Where Hands Touch might have been something truly great. Unfortunately, as it is, it's very middle ground fare that neither moves, engages, or informs - it simply exists.

| Apr 4, 2020

While Where Hands Touch has its tender moments, and manages to draw some teary eyes, its central romance becomes more outlandish as the film progresses, becoming borderline distasteful.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Jun 3, 2019

Where Hands Touch certainly doesn't deserve its viral meme infamy - it's a far more nuanced movie than that suggests - but it also will not join the pantheon of its director's finest moments.

| Original Score: 3/5 | May 29, 2019

I found myself looking at it and liking certain parts, but I didn't get emotionally swept up...but it great that the film happened, in itself there's a sense of relief and triumph there...

| May 22, 2019

In a disappointing turn from Asante, an important and vital narrative is lost in a bizarre and over-dramatic love story.

| Original Score: 4/10 | May 22, 2019

A frustratingly wasted opportunity.

| Original Score: 2/5 | May 10, 2019

It's a fascinating take on the horrors of World War II and one that confirms [Amandla] Stenberg as one of the most accomplished rising stars of her generation.

| Original Score: 3/5 | May 10, 2019

If Asante's idea is that Nazi ideology poisoned bright young minds into viewing their fellow citizens as less than human, the lovey-dovey bond she's pushing as the main event seems even more implausible.

| Original Score: 2/5 | May 10, 2019

The film gives us elements of melodrama and also of epic - yet there is also something a little uncomfortable about it.

| Original Score: 2/5 | May 10, 2019

Where Hands Touch is ultimately let down by a deeply contrived narrative and tone-deaf melodramatic style which only serves to diminish the importance and urgency of the real life stories behind Assante's screenplay.

| Original Score: 2/5 | May 9, 2019

Patchy acting, questionable accents and a clunky screenplay that tamely wends its way down a lazy river of fawning predictability, further hamper a film that screams for the authenticity and inventiveness of Asante's previous directorial outings.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Apr 23, 2019

Dramatically it's a mixed bag, but Where Hands Touch does offer some moments of magic.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Apr 18, 2019

Casting Amandla Stenberg as Leyna in the starring role was an excellent choice.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Apr 15, 2019

It isn't the implausibility of the script which causes this film's failure, it's the inability to create complex or practical characters from these fragments of reality.

| Apr 2, 2019

While Asante's earlier films were grounded in reality and successfully linked the problems facing their protagonists to contemporary aspects of racism, Where Hands Touch seems unduly contrived.

| Original Score: 2.5/5 | Mar 29, 2019

In the end it feels like a school play, and not a very good one.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Mar 26, 2019

The performances are affecting, particularly George MacKay... deft direction...

| Original Score: 17/20 | Mar 26, 2019

With such a film as Where Hands Touch, and with the times we are living in, with the alt-right being validated by our current president, the film would have made a much stronger point if it focused on biracial Germans without a Nazi love interest.

| Jan 4, 2019