Themes: Looking For Love, Unrequited Love, Love Triangles
Main Cast: Mary-Louise Parker, Philippe Volter, Gabrielle Rose, Daniel MacIvor, Nadia Litz
Release Year: 1999
Country: CA
Run Time: 105 minutes
MPAA Rating: R
Plot
Five characters serve as metaphors for the five senses in this drama about human relationships from Canadian filmmaker Jeremy Podeswa. Ruth (Gabrielle Rose) works as a massage therapist; one day while giving a rubdown to Anna (Molly Parker), Ruth's teenage daughter Rachel (Nadia Litz) takes Anna's toddler daughter for a stroll in the park. However, Rachel loses track of the child and she's soon lost. While searching for her, Rachel meets Rupert (Brendan Fletcher), a voyeur who teaches her about the pleasures of observing others. Meanwhile, Robert (Daniel MacIvor) is a professional house cleaner with an unusually keen sense of smell. Convinced he can smell love, he starts to set up meetings with all of his former lovers to see if he can sniff out any feelings for him -- and, if not, find out why they stopped caring for him. Robert's friend Rona (Mary-Louise Parker) works as a baker but has no sense of taste, a severe occupational hazard. She also has romantic problems, thanks to the arrival of Roberto (Marco Leonardi), a man she met on a recent vacation in Italy. Finally, Richard (Philippe Volter) is an eye doctor who is losing his hearing. While this situation has left him horribly depressed, he meets a woman who helps him feel better about life. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
The Five Senses is about interconnected stories linked by a building which examine situations involving the five senses. Touch is represented by Ruth Seraph, a massage therapist who is treating Anna Miller. Ruth's daughter Rachel accidentally loses Anna's pre-school daughter, Amy Lee, in the park, when Rachel is distracted by the sight of a couple making love in the woods. Rachel meets a voyeur named Rupert (vision), and they become friends as fellow outsiders while he teaches her the pleasure of observing others. They eventually go to one of Rachel's hiding places, where she has him dress in a woman's wig.
Meanwhile, Ruth tries to help Anna cope with the disappearance of Amy Lee and stays the night at her home. Robert, a professional housecleaner, has an acute sense of smell, and seeks out the people he used to see to absorb their scents and see if he can smell any feeling for him or why they stopped caring for him. His professional clients include his friends Raymond and Rebecca, who makes perfume. Robert's friend Rona, a cake maker, has lost her sense of taste, and has romantic problems after Roberto, who she met on a vacation in Italy, arrives. Dr. Richard Jacob, an older optometrist, is losing his hearing and wants to remember all the sounds before he goes deaf. He had separated from his wife Sylvie, but later connects to a woman named Gail (Pascale Bussières) who helps him to cope and feel better about himself. In the end, Amy Lee is found, and Ruth and Rachel are reconciled.
