“For our elders and those who care for them”
Starring Kathleen Chalfant, Carolyn Michelle, and Andy McQueen, Familiar Touch is the winner of three major awards at the Venice Film Festival’s Horizons Competition: Best Director, Best Actress, and Best Debut Film.
Only those with a heart of stone will make it through the first ten minutes with dry eyes.
This film is exquisite.
Familiar Touch is told as a linear story. Clever exposition barely reveals detail and only when it’s needed. Every pinch of ingredients added in with care.You are thrown straight in with Ruth Goldman, seeing the events unfold in lockstep with her from the comforting domesticity of the kitchen, occasionally lost in thought as she prepares for a guest, to the searching gaze across the table and foreboding closure of the front door, luggage in hand by a so called stranger.
Her story is moving and funny. It’s also unfair. Ruth is cheeky, forthright, pragmatic, creative, graceful, sensual, and romantic. The walls barely feel fit to contain her. Ruth’s portrayal by Kathleen Chalfant affords her dignity and recognises her humanity, all the recipes that make up her character, even when she misinterprets context or can’t quite recall those close to her.
Every scene is perfectly composed. Some fixed and level to watch the moment unfold at a distance. Others are close and intimate. They are stunning, with one dreamy moment floating in a pool appearing as if it were straight from a ballet.
Warm tones balance out the breathtaking sadness that’s allowed to creep in without a soundtrack.
This is a beautiful and compassionate insight into dementia. We are rewarded deeply for persevering beyond the heartbreak, and our own fears of what the future could look like, with wonderfully developed characters.
And a delicious recipe for borscht, recalled perfectly.
Ten out of ten.
In cinemas 23 October.
* By Gayle O’Leary. If you’d like to catch up on more by Gayle here on Fremantle Shipping News, look right here!
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