With a number of small breakout films (Humpday and Your Sister’s Sister the most recent) and an episode of Mad Men to her name Lynn Shelton is establishing quite the name for herself

on the American independent film circuit. Her latest work Touchy Feely brings together a cast

of established character actors for a comic drama concerning physical and spiritual health and

fragile family and emotional ties. The plot revolves around two middle aged siblings; Abby

(Rosemarie DeWitt), a carefree massage therapist and Paul (Josh Pais), an uptight and painfully

shy dentist. Both are unmarried; she is passionately in love with her new boyfriend (Scoot

McNairy), he is desperately clutching onto his relationship with his sullen daughter Jenny

(Ellen Page) who spends her time assisting her father at his steadily declining family dentistry.

Dynamics shift when shortly after her boyfriend asks her to move in with him, Abby becomes

completely physically adverse to human contact rendering her useless at her job and wracked

with self doubt. At the same time Paul finds that he is suddenly able to ‘cure’ his patients

crippling tooth pain with seemingly no effort at all…

 

Touchy Feely attempts to find laughs in what is fairly niche subject matter for comedy films.

The state of your soul and body is a pretty existential place to search for mirth but the film does

make a decent stab at it in its first acts. The performances radiate with a quiet, unfussy naturality

that you can only expect from such a fine ensemble of character actors. Rosemarie DeWitt in

particular is charming and appealing in the latest of small but winning performances including

the titular role in Rachel Getting Married and Josh Pais is great as melancholy personified.

His Paul shuffles, mumbles and grimaces through proceedings to terrifically funny and oddly

moving effect. It’s a role that incorporates a surprising amount of comic physicality into it but all

the better for it. The rare occasions when he manages to force a smile resemble some form of

nervous, childlike glee and he injects a much needed boost of life into the proceedings.

The main issue with the film is it’s elusiveness; everytime you try to close your hand around it

you catch nothing. Shelton’s typical style of character establishment first and improvisation on

behalf of her performers has done her well in the past when focusing on a small, tight band of

characters. Yet in her first ensemble, there’s simply too much for her loose freestyle aesthetic to

cover up. Are we meant to laugh at the portrayal of new age therapy or be in quiet awe of it’s

supposed restorative qualities? The plot threads appear to tie themselves up without getting into

much detail on the subject. We get a substantial supporting role from Allison Janey as Abby’s

fellow healer/confidante in what like and effort to get more of the concepts across but this is

too underplayed to have impact. Whatever you think of new age therapy yourself, watching the

characters fumble loosely with this for 90 or so minutes can’t keep the attention rapt. Matters

aren’t helped by an undercooked subplot concerning Jenny’s misjudged crush on Abby’s

boyfriend. A final act revelation seems to have wandered in unexpected from another film

altogether (although the scene is beautifully shot) and a bonding, out of body experience between

brother and sister seems terribly neat and convenient.

 

Shelton is a great talent and it’s good to see that her scope is expanding yet she needs to maintain

a firmer hand on her material and a balance between the humour and the maudlin in order not

to fall again into this frustratingly ‘grey area’ of tone. Hopefully this is merely a blip in her

otherwise impressive filmography.