Touchy Feely (2013)

Bronwyn: "You could even be a Reiki master if that's what you wanted to be."

By Lynn Shelton
With Josh Pais, Rosemarie DeWitt and Ellen Page

I've always found dysfunctional family dramas to make for extremely interesting films if well done, with such a wealth of political and emotional undercurrents in them and so much to explore. Touchy Feely brings to the camera yet another dysfunctional family, in the form of a presumably divorced or widowed brother, Steve, working as a dental hygienist with his daughter, Jenny, and his sister, Abby, a massage therapist who at the beginning of the film decides to move in with her boyfriend.

Unlike other dysfunctional family narratives, this one employed what I'm very tempted to say was magical realism with a side of black comedy. To elaborate a little, whenever a sibling complained or made a judgmental observation about the other (either mentally or verbally) it seemed that instead of exposing the other's faults it rebounded on the one who complained and had him/her realize and explore what was lacking in his/her life. For example, when Abby tells Bronwyn, a healer, about her worries about Steve and how he is too rigid and uptight, we immediately witness her sudden aversion to touching skin which has devastating consequences since her job (which requires constant physical closeness as well as affecting her relationship with her boyfriend) and at the same time we witness Steve's suddenly booming success at his dental practice.

Similarly, when Steve passes judgment onto Abby (for his assumption that she's a drug addict) his newly flourishing dental practice seems to take a sudden plunge and this somehow affects Jenny, his daughter, who finally seems to find a headway in her life.

I guess the question that comes to mind is do families really work that way? Are our luck and fate pivoted around each other's successes and failures? What exactly is the power of touch, the touch of our friends and relatives and does it have a real impact on our life? Like the herbalist character Bronwyn and her belief in Reiki healing--do we really imbue those around us with our energies?

The film is short and when it ends we don't feel that we've had a substantial meal, by any means. Nevertheless, it retained our interest and raised questions I think were worth asking. Perhaps a naively optimistic tale about breaking old habits and growing together as a family.

62/100