Director: Sarah Friedland
Writer: Sarah Friedland
Stars: Kathleen Chalfant, H. Jon Benjamin, Carolyn Michelle
Synopsis: An octogenarian woman transitions to life in assisted living as she contends with her conflicting relationship to herself and her caregivers amidst her shifting memory, age identity, and desires.
Film is an audio/visual medium. There have been attempts made to add smell to it (Smell-O-Vision), but really it comes down to just what we can see and hear. Though, there are films that can transcend beyond just these two senses. If the images and sounds are strong enough it may trigger our memory. It may be that if the characters are suffering from cold weather, we pull our sweatshirts tighter. It may be that if the characters are tasting something gross, we take a sip of our sodas to get the taste out of our mouth. It may be that if a character is lifted by the aroma of a terrific feast in front of them, our mouths may water in return. Film uses memory to engage all of our senses and there are very few that do it as well as Familiar Touch.
There is true brilliance in the way writer/director Sarah Friedland and her team evoke the sensation of touch and make it an impression the viewer can feel right along with the actors on screen. There are shots of Ruth’s (Kathleen Chalfant) hands as she touches people and objects and because of the way cinematographer Gabe Elder positions the shot, we get a sense that it could be any hand, even our own. The same way that editor Aacharee Ungriswong inserts just the right amount of these hands so that we understand the importance or heft of the gesture. The same can be said of the sound team, led by sound designer Eli Cohn, which gives us that additional and important sensory input to fully grasp the touch on screen.
So much of Familiar Touch is about the present. It’s because Ruth is losing her past bit by little bit and her future is at a place that rarely changes. The film moves Ruth through these days that stretch on in her new home with her new routine and the new people in her life. We see the triumph of her good days and the agony of her bad days. This movement and flow wouldn’t work if it weren’t for the delicate and realistic performance of Kathleen Chalfant.
Chalfant has been a character actress for decades honing her craft, which helped her, in this lead role, to create a portrait of a person going through a tremendous upheaval in self. Her timing lends itself to the lighter moments. Her anger to the fear we all have about the possibility of going through something like this in our own lifetimes. Her devastation is palpable as she learns multiple times that she is at the end, that her memory is never to return and her self is gone. Chalfant is so achingly good and real in Familiar Touch. It’s a performance that transcends beyond the screen and into our sudden realization of our deterioration as we age.
There is a scene in the film that combines all of these elements together so absolutely perfectly, from Chalfant’s performance, to the cinematography, sound, editing, writing, and directing. Ruth is being given a session with the aquatic bodyworker (Rotem Hershkovich, an actual practitioner of the craft). In this session, Ruth floats on her back with the assistance of pool noodles and her bodyworker. As she is moved and floated, the sound becomes not a pool in a retirement community, but a crowded shore on a hot day. We experience what is happening in Ruth’s mind as she experiences this therapy. As the session ends and Vanessa (Carolyn Michelle) tells Ruth it’s time to come out, Ruth, still lost in memory, murmurs a few things to her lingering memories before she fully realizes where she is and the body she now inhabits.
Familiar Touch is full of scenes like this, scenes of quiet, of contemplation and a jarring return to reality. It’s a touching, devastating film that tries to give us a glimpse of what it’s like to watch someone disappear without the grandeur or melodrama we typically get with other films that try and tackle similar themes. It’s a film that never tries to over explain what’s happening, but lets us understand through these sensations and emotions what Ruth is experiencing. It’s a film filled with beautiful performances and many breaks for levity. The levity is not at the expense of anyone, but at the experience of trying to continue on after the body has begun to give up. Familiar Touch will stick with you like the lingering feeling of a lover’s hand on your skin, or your favorite fabric as it slips along your body.
