Kathleen Chalfant shines in Sarah Friedland’s poignant debut about memory, dignity and decline
By James Verniere/Boston Movie News
Debut feature film writer-director Sarah Friedland’s award-winning “Familiar Touch,” which is showing at The Brattle, is Christopher Nolan’s “Memento” for seniors. The film tells the harrowing, all-too-realistic tale of an octogenarian woman named Ruth Goldman (a radiant Kathleen Chalfant, “Old”), whom we meet as she dresses and prepares for lunch with a guest. She makes open-faced sandwiches and then, after rummaging through her closet, pulls an expensive-looking schmatta over her head.
Cinematographer Gabe Elder lingers on the well-kept home’s design and décor, which show signs of long-term, good taste. We want to live there. As Ruth dresses, she gazes at herself in the mirror. Is she seeing herself, or does she see a younger self, who has disappeared and grown old?
Things seem normal. But Ruth cannot think of the name of the middle-aged man who comes for lunch (it’s her architect son, Steve). Plus, she does not remember that this is the day that Steve (Worcester’s own H. Jon Benjamin, “Bob’s Burger’s”) is due to drive her to the nursing home that she chose, where she will live out her days (a dear friend of mine is making this transition in a week).
At the home, which is cheerfully named “Bella Vista” (meaning “beautiful view” in Spanish and Italian), a confused and only-barely-holding-it-together Ruth meets the receptionist and her caretaker, Vanessa (a powerful Carolyn Michelle, TV’s “The Chi”). Vanessa takes Ruth to her admittedly swanky rooms, but they are no match for the home Ruth has left behind. Left alone, Ruth stares out her window and sees an old man on a nearby balcony stripping off his robe and shirt. Rage, rage.
Although it is humane in its roots, “Familiar Touch” is a kind of real-life horror film. What happens to us if and when we begin to “lose it?” If we’re rich, it’s probably nicer than if we’re poor. But isn’t everything? In the case of Brooklyn-born Ruth Goldman, who can recite her mother’s recipe for borscht to the letter to her medical examiner, her dementia has not quite taken over.
Chalfant, a longtime, award-winning film and stage actor, brings great dignity to a woman whose ailment and age are designed to strip people of that virtue. Ruth’s life becomes a series of repetitions (perhaps to a fault). On her first day in the dining room, Ruth learns there is no “menu,” which she calls for on the spot. But the cook is kind and accommodating. The home has a book-filled library.
One morning, Ruth thinks that she’s a pantry worker in the kitchen. The cook goes along with it and gives her work to do. Her examiner asks her to say as many words starting with F as she can in 30 seconds (Can we?) Someone refers to Bella Vista as a “geriatric country club.” We agree. “Familiar Touch” is an only-slightly-less terrifying look at old age than last year’s mad sleeper, “The Rule of Jenny Pen.”
Inevitably, the film will be compared to Florian Zeller’s triumphant 2020 drama “The Father,” a film featuring an Academy Award-winning Anthony Hopkins as a similarly afflicted octogenarian Welshman. “Familiar Touch” withstands the comparison. The sight of Ruth being twirled around by a gentle worker in the home’s pool in an ecstatic state of almost complete weightlessness is a joy to behold. Sometime later, Vanessa moves on to a new job, and we worry about how Ruth will adapt. Steve finally arrives to hear his mother describe her fellow residents as “some schmucks I barely know.” Mother and son dance to Dionne Warwick’s 1962 single “Don’t Make Me Over.” Don’t.
‘Familiar Touch’
Rating: Not rated, profanity, mature themes.
Cast: Kathleen Chalfant, Caroline Michelle, H. Jon Benjamin
Director/writer: Sarah Friedland
Running time: 1 hour, 30 minutes
Where to Watch: The Brattle
Grade: B+
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