The 2005 film, The Touch, opens with Hannah (Kristia Knowles) being booked into jail.  Hannah is being charged with drug possession and assaulting a police officer.  She’s innocent on both charges.  Her boyfriend was the one who left the drugs in her car.  And, though she did hit a police officer, it was an accident.  But it doesn’t matter.  Hannah has been arrested and because she has no one in her life that has either the resources or the compassion to bail her out, she’s going to have to spend a while in jail.  The opening sequence is effective, both because of Kristia Knowles’s emotional performance and because it captures the dehumanizing process of being booked.  For Hannah, this is the worst moment of her life.  For the police officers who are taking her jewelry and barking orders at her, it’s juts another night.

Hannah’s sleaze of a boyfriend does finally bail her out of jail but Hannah wants nothing to do with him.  Instead, she tries to find a legitimate job but she soon discovers that no one is willing to hire someone with a criminal record.  The only way she can get hired is to lie about her past and, even in that case, her employer eventually does a background check on her and is forced to let her go.  When her car breaks down, a greasy mechanic says it’ll cost $900 to fix.  Of course, he suggests, there are other ways she could pay him…. Feeling totally alone and hopeless, Hannah uses the money that she has left to rent a room in a cheap motel.  She takes several pills and downs a bottle of liquor.

Her attempt at suicide doesn’t work but it does land her a spot in the local church shelter.  With the help of the other women at the shelter and Wanda (Shauna Bartel), the director of the program, Hannah starts to take control of her life and deal with the horrible traumas of her past.  However, the shelter is not inexpensive to run and many members of the church feel that the money could be better invested elsewhere, like in refurbishing the main building.  They also feel that women like Hannah are bringing a bad reputation to their congregation.  While Wanda and the Pastor (Bruce Borgan) try to keep the program from being shut down, Hannah fights the temptation to return to her old life.

To my surprise, I actually really liked The Touch.  Yes, it’s a very earnest and low-budget film and there are a few moments where things get a little bit heavy-handed.  But there are so many strong and honest moments that it’s easy to forgive the film’s flaws.  Kristia Knowles and Shauna Bartel both give strong performances and, in the end, the film’s message is a worthy one.  Far too often, society refuses to give a second chance to people who have had legal difficulties and, as a result, too many people come out of prison with no prospects and no support.  As a result people, like Hannah, are often left feeling as if they have no other option than to either give up or to return to the same behavior that got them in trouble in the first place.  Society has gotten so focused on punishment that they’ve overlooked the importance of rehabilitation.  Sometimes, a second chance is the most important thing that you give someone.