| THE FIVE SENSES |
1999 - Canada
Director: Jeremy Podeswa - Reviewed by Tim 
First off, let me say that I am one who likes the multi-layers of the "Art House" movie. This flick is one that has many layers to keep track of. Secondly, I was intrigued by a movie where Mary-Louise Parker was going to stay alive throughout the entire two hours, unlike some of her others films (Boys on the Side and Fried Green Tomatoes). Well, here we have a movie the actually splits into five or so different story lines, one for each of the five senses. Albeit, a loose representation of each sense, but a representation nonetheless. Touch - A massage therapist (Gabrielle Rose), who lost her husband two years prior, has a very distant relationship with her 16-year-old daughter (Nadia Litz). She sends a client's 4-year-old girl out with her own daughter while she gives the mother a massage. Not such an unordinary thing to do, but the teenager ends up loosing the child. The woman spends a lot of the movie trying to help the little girl's mother (Molly Parker) get through the ordeal. Smell - A bisexual man (Daniel MacIvor) is in search of "the scent of love" from all of his ex-lovers. He is a professional house cleaner who, for some reason, thinks that if he is going to find the "perfect love," it will be with someone from his past. He longs for the relationship that one of his client's has, and ends up in, what could be, a good or bad situation. He has a great scene where he's vacuuming with the music blaring. Taste - An artist (Mary-Louise Parker) creates cakes that don't taste all that great, but are pleasing to the eye. She is also trying to deal with the unexpected arrival of her Italian lover (Marco Leonardi), who does not speak English, but is VERY pleasing to the eye. She spends her time dealing with that the fact that her mother is dying, her Italian lover may be staying to get his green card and dealing with her best friend, the bisexual house cleaner. She has a great reaction shot of her face after actually tasting the cake she makes. Eeeeewww, yuck!!!! Hearing - A French optometrist (Philippe Volter) learns that he is going deaf, so he closes up shop for 2 weeks and makes a list of all the sounds he wants to hear before everything goes silent. There is a nice scene of him sitting on an unused railroad track and pressing his ear up against one on of the tracks to find the humming on an oncoming train. He calls on the company of what seems to be his "regular" prostitute (Pascale Bussières) and finds compassion and understanding. She has great eyes that would make me want to go deaf, IF I could spend "quality" time with her. Sight - The 16-year-old daughter (Litz) of the massage therapist, while finding the secret pleasure of voyeurism, loses the 4-year-old girl that here mother put her in charge of. She spends time assisting elderly people in a home, she writes poetry, she plays dress up with her newly found cross-dressing voyeur friend Rupert and, oh, yeah, she watches people have sex in the park. Oh my! I don't know about you, but that's NOT what I was doing when I was 16. Come on, all you voyeurs, raise your hands! All five stories originate in an office/apartment building in an unnamed Canadian city, with the media fury of the missing 4-year-old in the background, though there is almost an every-day-kind-of-occurrence feel to it. With all the stories going on at once, the filmmakers were only able to flesh out bits of character for each, but did a good job at pacing and mood setting. Believe me, there was mood throughout the entire film. I wouldn't recommend this film to those who are looking for action or comedy. It definitely has the feel of the good old Independent Film. |
|
Home
| Currently Playing | For
Rent | Video Obsession ©2000 Moviepie e-mail us |
