[TOUCHY FEELY screens Friday November 29th at 7:30 pm and Sunday December 1st at 1:30 pm at the Cleveland Museum of Art.]
Review by Bob Ignizio
TOUCHY FEELY
is yet another facile
indie film populated by characters who are little more than the sum
of their quirks dealing with banal, self-created issues that are the
very definition of “first world problems”. The particulars here
are that massage therapist Abby (Rosemarie DeWitt) suddenly develops
a revulsion to human skin right after deciding to move in with her
boyfriend Jesse (Scott McNairy). Simultaneously Abby's brother Paul
(John Pais) seems to develop the power to heal the patients at his
dental practice merely by touch, leading him to take reiki classes
from Abby's teacher Bronwyn (Allison Janney).
Not
all is well with Paul, though, as his daughter/dental assistant Jenny
(Ellen Page) is starting to feel stifled both living and working with
a dad who doesn't respect her abilities. Jenny also worries that her
dad wouldn't support her decision to go to college, so she fills out
applications but never mails them. The whole thing is sprinkled
liberally with new age philosophizing and talk about “energy”.
