"Touch" (United Artists), based on a 1976 novel by Elmore Leonard, will disconcert fans hoping to find another "Get Shorty." Its central character, Juvenal (Skeet Ulrich), is a former Franciscan brother who possesses the gift of healing. It has Leonard's tough-but-funny dialogue and unscrupulous operators, but this time the con men are juggling religion and hucksterism as they try to exploit what seems like a mystical phenomenon.

The novel attracted Paul Schrader, a veteran ...