It is healing hands that lie at the heart of Touchy Feely, the new film from lauded mumblecore veteran, Lynn Shelton. Bromance had been her most successful subject matter until she dropped the ‘b’ for 2011’s Your Sister’s Sister, which focused on siblings caught in a pseudo-love triangle. There are similar complications in her uneven latest, but they’re a supporting thread in the contrasting fortunes of Abby (Rosemarie DeWitt) and her brother, Paul (Josh Pais).
Abby is a seemingly successful massage therapist, with her chakras all aligned and the relationship with boyfriend Jesse (Scoot McNairy) fast approaching co-habitation. Already living together are Paul and his daughter Jenny (Ellen Page), who has thus far forsaken college to maintain a co-dependent setup that sees her persist as the nurse at his ailing dental practice. Suddenly, though, Abby’s life is thrown into disarray when she develops an acute phobia of touching, while Paul is inundated with new patients after someone claims he has healed a chronic toothache without even treating it.
Pais’ Paul is arguably the most overtly comedic character to inhabit Shelton’s filmography so far; his default is an almost squirm-inducing awkwardness and his unexpected popularity only multiplies the humour quotient. He is still imbued with his creator’s usual compassion, articulated through a melancholy which keeps him from being altogether cartoonish. He does significantly stand out from the rest of the ensemble. Whether subtle or broad, none of them quite takes root in the way that the filmmaker’s previous characters have managed to. After a standout performance in Your Sister’s Sister, Rosemarie DeWitt must do her best with a less bountiful role.
Shelton does take the opportunity of Abby’s aversion to human skin to add a little flare to her otherwise understated directorial style – extreme close-ups provide an element of clear subjectivity to this presentation of the character’s strange new world. Given the interesting visual and thematic focus on issues of physical and emotional intimacy, though, it all leaves one feeling just a little distant. As likeable as it remains throughout – and chuckles will be raised – one can’t help but conclude that Touchy Feely falls short of the director’s best work.
Ben has awarded Touchy Feely with three Torches of Truth
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