Touchy Feely

First, I am very picky about movies. I dislike most modern films because they lack solid acting, a thoughtful plot, and meaningful pacing, and instead opt for a fast-paced romp to keep the viewer entertained for 90 minutes. This film is quite different. The pace was not rushed, the characters were developed, and the acting was superb. I've now watched this film multiple times and pick up new things from each viewing. It is a very thoughtful film about who we think we are, and how fixated we are on how we think life ought to be, and I feel like anyone who takes some time to ponder about this film will have a lot to think about and enjoy reflecting on.

I wanted to love this movie, it feels exactly like the type of movie in which that would happen. It started off so strongly and I was convinced that it would be one of my favorite films of the year. And then it just kind of died. The actors were all great and it is hard for me not to love anything Allison Janney is involved with. I just can't quite put my finger on what happened here.

Rosemarie DeWitt is a masseuse who is suddenly turned off by skin and physical contact and this creates a barrier with her job as well as her boyfriend. Josh Pais is her brother, a dentist who borders on being seemingly autistic and really has no joy or connection with anyone in the world, including his daughter (Ellen Page) who feels trapped working with her father at his office. Pais goes to see Allison Janney (a masseuse working with DeWitt) and is inspired to have connections of his own, but we never really see it come to fruition in any meaningful way that makes any sense. Which is how I felt about most of the situations in the film.

The parts with the father coming to Allison Janney for the first time and the great interaction and natural acting of the family all getting together for that first dinner were perfect. But then everything just kind of flattens out and people get worse and try various things to get better and some of it works and some is sort of unresolved and we never quite go beyond that.

I was quite surprised to find that this film was under 90 minutes because when it was nearly over, I found myself wondering just when it was going to end because it felt so long. There are voice-over and music montages where we see what the various characters are going through that just feel like they are twice as long as they should be. And those are the types of scenes I typically love so I really wish they had landed in this film. I think if I had cared more about the characters and they weren't just odd caricatures as the film went on, it would have maybe had more impact. The acting was all really great though and I loved the cast. They did well with what felt like half-baked characters and certainly elevated the film in that regard.

Things resolve themselves for the characters without any real feeling of why but I didn't depart with any real personal resolution from the audience standpoint.

'TOUCHY FEELY': Two and a Half Stars (Out of Five)

Another comedy-drama film about relationships from writer/director Lynn Shelton. Shelton also wrote and directed the 2009' film 'HUMPDAY' and 2011's 'YOUR SISTER'S SISTER' (which was a better movie). One of the stars of 'YOUR SISTER'S SISTER', Rosemarie DeWitt, also stars in this film along with Ellen Page, Josh Pais, Scoot McNairy, Allison Janney, Tomo Nakayama and Ron Livingston. The movie is about a dentist and his daughter struggling to revive their dental business and the dentist's sister, who's a massage therapist, that suddenly loses her ability to touch another human being (out of fear). It's quirky and oddly funny at times but never very touching or as emotionally moving as it would like to be.

DeWitt plays Abby, a massage therapist who's boyfriend Jesse (McNairy) just asked her to move in with him. This scares her, as her last relationship was a hard breakup, and she starts having panic attacks that prevent her from doing her job. Her brother Paul (Pais) is a very conservative and anal dentist who lives in their parents' old house with his daughter Jenny (Page). Jenny is Paul's assistant at his dental practice, where business has been extremely slow. One day Jenny invites her friend Henry (Tomo Nakayama) in for a free cleaning and when her father heals his long time tooth pains their reputation picks up and so does their business.

The movie is interesting and entertaining enough while you're watching it but once it's over it doesn't really leave you with much to think about. That's good enough for some movies but I think a film like this really wants to accomplish a lot more. The cast is all great (I think DeWitt is gorgeous and I've been a fan of Page ever since 'JUNO') and the characters are likable but I don't think the resolutions to their problems are very satisfactory. It's oddly funny but never hilarious and is frequently on the verge of being emotionally moving but never quite gets there. It all seems just a little too uneventful in the end. Not a bad film but not an especially good one either.

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'Touchy Feely' is yet another Indie film which depicts the ho-hum dilemmas and repressed behavior of middle-class American families. The opening act is set at an awkward dinner, where it's revealed that a dentist single father is obstructing his daughter's artistic potential by employing her as an assistant, while his sister works as a massage therapist, and hesitates over moving in with an unambitious boyfriend.

Their issues soon materialize in bizarre ways - the dentist discovers his touch can miraculously cure long-standing dental ailments, while the massage therapist suddenly finds herself repulsed by human skin. The fine cast does their best with the material, but this lightweight fable makes little sense as pivotal plot-lines are swept under the carpet, or else forgotten by the screenwriter. By the time everybody gathers for a second dinner, most of the family problems have magically evaporated thanks to the glib ministrations of a Reiki therapist, an ex-lover's apology, the songs of an Asian folk singer and a couple of tabs of ecstasy.

...For a useless little effort of a movie.

If the writers and producers create a film with one completly strange and mysterious plot device and then proceed to offer no explanation of it whatsoever, I write them off immediately.

Such is the case with this movie. Absolutely no effort is put into explaining the dentist's strange healing powers.

This is artistically lazy and uncreative. It's supposed to render the film with a more important human element and deeper meaning. But that's an artistic ploy- like the old, cheesy sci fi films that featured an impossibly weird monster, but never explained how in the world the monster came into being. Or even why said monster is now living in the middle of NYC.

Lazy. Like my review. Ignore both.