Familiar Touch review – Kathleen Chalfant is brilliant in the delicately sensual drama of amnesia | film

pExtremely tender and untainted by the slightest trace of sentimentality, this intimate and frankly sensual drama follows elderly Ruth (American theater icon Kathleen Chalfant) as she adjusts to a major change in circumstances. The film is told in a boldly economical style that reveals key details only when absolutely necessary, and hints at what happens when Ruth treats a laundry rack like a box of toast.

Minutes later, a middle-aged man named Steve (H. John Benjamin), whom Ruth initially flirts slyly with until he reveals that he is already married, arrives at her house to take her to her new home in a retirement community. When the staff there refers to Steve as Ruth’s son, this revelation is as shocking to her as it is to us.

It becomes abundantly clear that Ruth is suffering from significant short-term memory loss, although she is still able to eat her delicious borscht recipe. Turns out she was once a professional chef, and one of the film’s most entertaining scenes sees her invading the home’s kitchen and preparing scrambled eggs and fruit salad for the residents.

This extraordinary debut feature from writer-director Sarah Friedland (whose previous films have focused on dance) draws from Friedland’s own experience with people with dementia—her relatives and people she worked with in a nursing home earlier in her career. At the same time, the film’s intense focus on bodies and tactile sensation (it’s called “familiar touch” for nothing) connects it to Friedland’s work as a choreographer.

Indeed, there is something particularly theatrical in a wonderful interlude in which a caregiver attends to Ruth in the pool, rhythmically moving her back and forth in the water like a relaxing infant, while the soundtrack gradually conjures up the sounds he recalls of a day at the beach – seagulls, calliope music, and cries of childish delight.

What is so poignant about this moment and many others is that the film does not treat Ruth’s cognitive transformation as a great tragedy, a loss of self, or an emotionally imagined transformation into a lovable old lady. Ruth is still full of urine and balsamic vinegar, a bit prickly, like a Minx in the way her short hair is.

You can tell there’s a little racial suspicion in the way her black nanny (Caroline Michelle Smith) initially treats Vanessa, offering to set her up on a date with her civil rights-supporting brother. At one point, Ruth overhears Vanessa and Dr. Brian (Andy McQueen) having a polite, cryptic conversation about how they shouldn’t care for their elderly parents in a quasi-country club facility like this.

The way Friedland skillfully works in these little touches is truly impressive. But perhaps her best achievement here is the casting of Chalfant, who delivers a nuanced, thoughtful, and startlingly brilliant performance. However, it may not receive recognition from award bodies, because it requires no prosthetics, flashy speeches or weight fluctuations – just proper craftsmanship and acting skill.