Familiar Touch

The story is simple, but the impact is profound. Ruth is struggling with dementia, caught between lucidity and forgetfulness in her new assisted care facility. She tries to stay the same person she has always been, connecting with her son and her primary caregiver, but also — sometimes — recognizes that it’s simply not possible. The film treats an incredibly hard subject that touches many lives with incredible honest and incredible tenderness, providing an authentic portrait of a woman whose world changes with every lapse or return of memory. It’s positively beautiful, the kind of movie that just doesn’t get made anymore, and well worth the 90 minutes to share it with your community. It currently has a 98% Tomatometer on Rotten Tomatoes.

“Familiar Touch is a gorgeous drama with an open, aching heart.” -Jourdain Searles, RogerEbert.com
“Director and screenwriter Sarah Friedland’s exquisite film is heartbreakingly authentic but warmhearted and even joyful at moments, as it respects the life of the regal and refined Ruth” -Randy Myers, San Jose Mercury News
“Chalfant’s Ruth is merely, momentously human: an older woman in need, but no less expressive of life’s fullness because of it. It’s a portrayal to remember, for as long as any of us can.” -Robert Abele, Los Angeles Times
“Our society treats aging like a curse never to be mentioned instead of the inevitability it is, but Friedland’s film challenges us to see it head-on.” -Ty Burr, Washington Post
“Familiar Touch is that near-extinct cinematic species: a film about old age that neither wallows in pity nor begs for applause.” -Rex Reed, Observer
“Friedland’s film, as sharp as it is soft, conveys both the terror of losing the life you recognize, and the intermittent, fragmented joy of finding it again.” -Guy Lodge, Variety
“Familiar Touch is a film about forgetting, but it’s also a reminder — as moving, sincere and gracefully unadorned as any I’ve seen in some time — of the actor’s art.” -Zachary Barnes, Wall Street Journal
“Because writer-director Sarah Friedland’s debut finds so much depth in its subjective approach to memory loss, it loses much of its stigma and discovers wonder in its place.” -Jacob Oller, AV Club
“Familiar Touch can be sad, without question, but it’s also salty and boundlessly tender.” -Alison Willmore, New York Magazine/Vulture
“An incredible, beautiful feature debut, and a towering performance from Kathleen Chalfant.” -Kristy Lemire, FilmWeek

Familiar Touch opens at The Clyde on Friday, August 8, and plays Friday, Saturday, Sunday, & Monday at 7:30.