Familiar Touch
Sarah Friedland’s sensitively realised portrait of life in an American care home is distinguished by magnificent acting.
Image courtesy of Bulldog Film Distribution.
by MANSEL STIMPSON
Much better known in America than she is here, this film’s leading actress Kathleen Chalfont is most famous for her stage work. That is something that you would never guess from her performance here since it is an outstanding example of just how much can be expressed through the face when you know how to play to the camera for maximum effect. All credit too to Sarah Friedland who as writer and director was making her feature debut and could not be more adept in taking advantage of Chalfont’s subtle and wondrous skill.
Familiar Touch was made in 2024 and has won highly enthusiastic reviews along with no less than thirteen awards, including four for Kathleen Chalfont as best actress. Normally that would have led to an earlier release in the UK but in this case one can understand why distributors may have had their doubts. While many might well applaud a film in which the central character is a female, it becomes a hard sell when the woman in question is an octogenarian who is placed in an assisted living facility due to dementia. But, if it is easy to understand why some would be reluctant to seek out a film on this theme, there are very good reasons to take the plunge in this particular case.
It is relevant here to take note of how it was that Friedland became drawn to this subject. Born in 1992, she is a choreographer as well as being a filmmaker and before making Familiar Touch she had tried her hand at short films which were often related to experimental dance. But it is significant that in addition she had also worked in care homes including one in Pasadena known as the Villa Gardens Continuing Retirement Community. Her activity there extended to acting as a teaching artist instructing the elderly inmates in filmmaking courses. It was that experience and the rapport that she established with these people which led to her venturing on this feature film. The establishment in it is renamed Bella Vista but Familiar Touch was shot in Villa Gardens with many of those seen appearing as themselves. Indeed, the film is stated to have been made in collaboration with the home’s residents and staff.
Given that motivation, it is unsurprising that Familiar Touch is made with real sureness and sensitivity. Indeed, it emerges as a deeply engaged work while also being a piece which, in keeping with its rejection of a music score, eschews sentimentality. The film first introduces us to its central figure, Ruth Goldman, before she is brought to Bella Vista. She is both an octogenarian and a widow, a woman who looks back on her career as a chef and prides herself on managing life on her own in her later years. She remains highly articulate yet fails to appreciate the extent to which Alzheimer's is affecting her. What we see is always told from her point of view, but nevertheless her state is apparent to us and all the more so because a pre-credit sequence lets us see that she fails to recognise the identity of a middle-aged man (H. Jon Benjamin) who calls on her.
In the circumstances it is entirely understandable that Ruth’s son should have decided that his mother needs to live in Bella Vista and Friedland's film is largely devoted to showing what happens when she arrives there. The tone of these scenes could not be better judged. The subject matter is such that it could have been treated either as a documentary or as a drama but for much of its length Friedland’s film seems to blend the two possibilities in a remarkably accomplished way. Her screenplay avoids any sense of artificiality and that fact, together with the authenticity of the setting, creates a work equal to the best that a documentary on the theme could have delivered. But, on top of that, this film provides naturalistic acting of the highest quality which is a pleasure in itself. All of the players are good but, with the focus being so very much on Ruth, it is Kathleen Chalfont who is the living centre of the piece. Nevertheless, there is a second exceptional performance here too: it comes from Carolyn Michelle as Vanessa, she being the staff member who looks after Ruth. Vanessa is a dedicated carer and Michelle no less than Chalfont knows exactly how to make the most of facial expressiveness which in this case fully conveys Vanessa's commitment and concern.
While the situation is a sad one, Friedland ensures that Gabe C. Elder’s photography makes effective use of bright colours and does so without that ever seeming forced. As for the dialogue that she provides, it credibly includes moments that are comic and even extends to scenes that are both amusing and pathetic simultaneously. So delectably is this handled that I felt for at least an hour that I would be in agreement with the many critics who regard Familiar Touch as a masterpiece. But in the event the last third surprised me by losing its grip. That first occurs when somewhat more stylised scenes make one uncertain if they are meant to be real or imagined or indeed dreamt. Subsequently the film does offer a telling development when Ruth runs away from Bella Vista even though getting out undetected seems all too easy. She is subsequently found in a supermarket (an effective episode) but thereafter we have scenes including a sudden return to Ruth’s own residence and this and other episodes follow in an oddly piecemeal fashion. Later on, it feels as though the film has reached its climax - this in a passage which for once almost verges on the sentimental as it features the only music in the film in the form of a record of Dionne Warwick singing ‘Don't Make Me Over’. Yet that is not the end since it yields to another scene that is quite brief and which ends the film rather drably.
I was left with a sense that Sarah Friedland for all her skills had never quite managed to find the best way to bring her film to a close. Ironically, the strength of that feeling may have been down to the virtual perfection of the first two thirds of it. In any case I can't stress too strongly that the performances of Chalfont and Michelle should not be missed and that a great deal of Sarah Friedland's film is superbly realised. Whatever its weaknesses, this is a notable debut and it is clearly deeply heartfelt as is further confirmed when Friedland dedicates her film to "our elders and those who care for them.”
Cast: Kathleen Chalfont, Carolyn Michelle, Andy McQueen, H. Jon Benjamin, London Garcia, Mike G., Katelyn Nacon, Joahn Webb, Sandy Velasco, Alison Martin, Bernard Beck, Dick Myers, Pierce Minor.
Dir Sarah Friedland,Pro Alexandra Byer, Sarah Friedland and Matthew Thurm, Screenplay Sarah Friedland, Ph Gabe C. Elder, Pro Des Stephanie Osin Cohen, Ed Aacharee ‘Ohm’ Ungsriwong with Kate Abernathy, Costumes Nan Zhou.
Rathaus Films/Go for Thurm/Artemis Foundation-Bulldog Film Distribution.
92 mins. USA. 2024. US Rel: 20 June 2025. UK Rel: 12 June 2026. Cert. 12A.
