Release and Reception
Handle Me With Care opened in Thailand cinemas on February 21, 2008. It was No. 4 at the box office on opening weekend, behind the newly released Hollywood film, Jumper, the three-week-old Thai martial arts film, Chocolate and a Thai comedy, Valentine, which had been released the week before. It remained in fourth place the following week but then dropped to No. 19 in its third weekend.
Local critical response was mixed. Bangkok Post film critic Kong Rithdee called the film "wearisome", and said that though the film has "nice moments ... the script is too shipshape, maybe too busy with its thematic messages, and it's not easy to sympathise with Kwan, who obviously has never heard of worse handicaps. Writer-director Kongdej Jaturanrasamee is a better director when he allows his films to be wackier.".
ThaiCinema.org's reviewers praised the performance by actress Supaksorn Chaimongkol, as well as the intricate "hand talent" effects – Kwan's third hand was played by an actual actor, rather than special effects. But the reviewers said the film contained too many elements and tended to be draggy in places.
The film was screened at the 2008 Hong Kong International Film Festival, where it was reviewed by Maggie Lee of the Hollywood Reporter, who echoed the criticisms that the film had too many elements. "Director Kongdej Jaturanrasamee is in two minds about turning his script into Jim Carrey-like slapstick, a candy floss romance with a dash of magical fantasy, or an offbeat road movie. He handles none of these generic variations with enough care, leaving each dangling like an unwanted arm."
Russell Edwards of Variety also said the problem was the script, which "like many comedies with a sentimental streak, gets lost in mawkishness ... the idiosyncratic "Handle" becomes too slow and self-pitying".
The film also played at the 2008 Far East Film Festival in Udine, Italy and in June 2008 at the Filmfest München in Munich, Germany.
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