Stories about cognitive decline have seen an increase as of late, examples include Still Alice, Supernova, The Leisure Seeker, and Florian Zeller’s Oscar winning The Father. Even that Argentinian enfant terrible of the French Extremity, Gaspar Noé, gave his take on it with the split screen experimental film, Vortex, starring none other than giallo maestro Dario Argento. Dementia represents a personal nightmare for a lot of people, so it’s been made into compelling screen material for both film and television. But as heartwrenching and devastating as it can be, and despite the importance of spreading awareness about it, the genre has begun to spoil. Familiar Touch admirably takes a slightly different approach in tone to the topic than the others, but still doesn’t manage to separate itself from often seen premises, and the film still feels like the coming-of-old-age drama you’d expect.
Kathleen Chalfant stars as Ruth, a fiercely independent and erudite woman who nevertheless suffers from some form of cognitive decline, likely Alzheimer’s. Writer/director Sarah Friedland provides little biographical information, implying almost all of Ruth’s relationships and history, and focuses more on what defines her outside of the context of her previous life. We do know she was once married, has a loving son named Steve (H. Jon Benjamin), enjoys reading, and worked as a professional chef, but not much else. The spareness is a choice as thematic as it is economical, as Ruth will soon shed all the material and incidental things that define a person on the periphery of their true inner life—career, relatives, possessions. Although stubborn and reluctant, the move into assisted living peels back her layers to reveal a more pure and vulnerable version of herself, and she begins living, in a way, more mindfully than ever before.
Nevertheless, the inevitable erosion of Ruth’s independence proves difficult for her to accept, to say nothing of her dwindling faculties. Although she acclimates to her new lot for the most part, her stark individuality clashes with the more communal nature of retired living, not to mention its occasionally disempowering atmosphere of patronization. Connecting with other, more addled residents proves to be a challenge. She also has occasional friction between her well-meaning Nurse, Vanessa (Carolyn Michelle), and primary care doctor Brian, (Andy McQueen), which reminds her of the lost sense of self-determination she so easily enjoyed at her idyllic home. While the film relies mostly on quiet, observational scenes, it’s these more dialogue-driven moments that are the most compelling, and also contain the most surprises.
At her first dinner, when given a cup of strange pills, Ruth of course rejects them. Unlike other media, which would milk this reluctance for tension, having the nurses become irritated or even menacing in their insistence that she take the medication when met with the protagonist’s dignified defiance, Vanessa instead identifies the specific (and rather thoughtful) purpose for each pill. A blood thinner to prevent clots, a calcium tablet so her bones don’t get weak, a multivitamin, and a pill to help with her memory loss. At this, Ruth puts up no more protest, and in fact seems grateful to have simply been informed of why and how things are going to work instead of being coddled or lied to.
Although tinged with the inherent sadness of the disease, Familiar Touch takes every opportunity to show how, with the right care, a person can still live a meaningful life with such diagnoses, and in fact sometimes the aging process brings about a kind of simplicity to life which can be appreciated on its own merit. But, while this is a worthy message, I can’t help but ask, what about people without the right care?
I’m not normally one to review the movie I wish I’d seen instead, but in this case I feel, other than having a more hopeful and optimistic tone, Familiar Touch doesn’t quite deliver the kind of novel experience it seems to be striving for. Like most other films of its kind, it centers a wealthy, white protagonist and their personal struggle to come to grips with their loss of identity, with few major stressors accelerating their condition otherwise. But it doesn’t consider the experience of a person who cannot afford a clean, idyllic, top-notch nursing home like Ruth’s, or how black or brown patients might be treated differently when they refuse their pills, or how these things are worsened by the social conditions and economic constraints that often make finding good elder care such a crapshoot for most people. Getting old is scary for more than just existential reasons. Losing cognizance places you in the hands of institutions staffed by overworked and underpaid people and run by a callously capitalist system. We almost never get to see that reflected in films about aging, even though it’s the unfortunate norm.
That isn’t to say the movie’s bad. Those seeking a bittersweet, heartfelt exploration of the topic with a positive and life-affirming spin should enjoy it quite a bit. Friedland, an experimental filmmaker and choreographer, at the very least directs with subtlety and sophistication, her compositions elegant and tactile and her sense of rhythm serene and unfussy. Chalfant, too, gives an excellent performance, lived in and natural but not lacking the necessary bravado needed for the character, a task best performed by a seasoned stage actress. These elements yield and undeniably compelling story, if not a singular one. While the film isn’t necessarily all that different from others, it sure is a lot better.| Nic Champion
