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.
"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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
