Andy McQueen, Carolyn Michelle, drama, Familiar Touch, film festivals, H. Jon Benjamin, movies, reviews, Sarah Friedland, Venice International Film Festival
July 31, 2025
by Carla Hay
Directed by Sarah Friedland
Culture Representation: Taking place in an unnamed U.S. city, the dramatic film “Familiar Touch” features a predominantly white cast of characters (with a few African Americans and Asians) representing the working-class and middle-class.
Culture Clash: An elderly woman struggles to accept that she has dementia when she is sent to live in an assisted living facility.
Culture Audience: “Familiar Touch” will appeal primarily to viewers who are interested in realistic dramas about how dementia affects people.
“Familiar Touch” might be too slow-paced for some viewers. However, this emotionally authentic drama has admirable performances in portraying how an elderly woman and the people around her are affected by her dementia. It’s a “slice of life” movies that shows both mundane everyday activities and profoundly moving interactions.
Written and directed by Sarah Friedland, “Familiar Touch” is her feature-film directorial debut. “Familiar Touch” had its world premiere at the 2025 Venice International Film Festival, where it won three prizes in the Orizzonti/Horizons section: Best First Film, Best Director and Best Actress (for Kathleen Chalfant). The movie is inspired by Friedland‘s “work as a memory care worker and teaching artist to older adults,” according to the “Familiar Touch” production notes.
“Familiar Touch” (which takes place in an unnamed U.S. city) begins with a scene that at first seems to be an awkward first date. A woman in her late 80s named Ruth Goldman (played by Chalfant) has prepared a lunch for a middle-aged man named Steve (played by H. Jon Benjamin) in her home. They exchange small talk at the dining table.
Steve asks Ruth, “How are you feeling?” Ruth says, “I feel great.” He then asks Ruth, “Are you sleeping okay?” Ruth responds defensively. “Yes. Why does it concern you how I sleep?”
The discussion then moves on to what Steve does for a living when Ruth asks him. Steve tells her that he’s an architect. Ruth comments, “That’s great. In a destructive world, the ability to build things is a very important gift.”
The first indication that Ruth does not have all of her wits about her is when she mentions that her father is a carpenter and talks about him as if he’s still alive. “Maybe you’ll meet him someday,” Ruth tells Steve. Steve mentions that he’s married. Ruth says that he’s married too, and her husband’s name is Seymour. Steve says that he’s met Seymour.
Steve tells Ruth more about his job by saying that he’s building a house that uses sustainable architecture, which generates its own natural energy, such as wind and other elements, to power the building. Ruth is affectionate to Steve, as she touches his knee during this conversation. Steve looks very uncomfortable, abruptly gets up, and says it’s time to go.
It’s eventually revealed that Steve is actually Ruth’s son, she’s a widow, and she has dementia. Steve had come over to her house to drive Ruth to an assisted living facility called Bella Vista, where most of the residents are elderly people. (The Bella Vista scenes in “Familiar Touch” were actually filmed at Villa Gardens, a retirement community in Pasadena, California.) Ruth is very angry about this relocation because she thinks she can take care of herself.
The rest of “Familiar Touch” shows Ruth going through a wide range of emotions (and various states of confusions and lucidity) as she adjusts to life at Bella Vista. She gets to know two Bella Vista employees: an aide named Vanessa (played by Carolyn Michelle) and a medical doctor named Brian (played by Andy McQueen), who see Ruth at her best, her worst, and everything in between. Ruth also interacts with some of Bella Vista’s other residents, although she initially thinks she’s in better health than most of them.
Ruth shows all the signs of having early on-set dementia that is getting progressively worse. She remembers things such as her birthdate and where she was born (March 6, 1937, in Brooklyn, New York), but she forgets other things such as who her son Steve is and what she might have said just minutes before. Ruth goes through all the stages of grief when she slowly begins to understand she has dementia.
One thing that Ruth remembers is that she used to be a cook. And so, one day she starts cooking in the Bella Vista kitchen as if she’s the head chef. The movie ends up showing how the Bella Vista staff deals with Ruth’s unpredictability.
“Familiar Touch” won’t be an easy film to watch if anyone has had a loved one with dementia and that person needed round-the-clock care. All of the “Familiar Touch” cast members perform impressively in their roles, but Chalfant carries the movie with her very realistic performance. Ruth is at times sassy and defiant and at other times frightened and vulnerable. “Familiar Touch” is highly recommended for anyone who is prepared to see many uncomfortable truths about the effects of dementia—as well as how patience, compassion and love can make a difference for those who are living with this devastating disease.
Music Box Films released “Familiar Touch” in select U.S. cinemas on June 20, 2025. The movie will be released on digital and VOD on August 19, 2025.