I could really sum up director Lynn Shelton’s latest and her least likable movie in one word : annoying. She squanders her reputation (‘Humpday’ and ‘Your Sister’s Sister) and an excellent cast (including Ellen Page, Alison Janney & Josh Pais) on this embarrassingly unfunny comedy that went down like a lead balloon when it premiered at Sundance 2013.
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The ever excellent Rosemarie DeWitt plays Abby a very successful massage therapist with a great clientele and a boyfriend who adores her. Her luckless brother Paul however is so uptight that his dentist practice barely has any patients left (his wife scooted off years ago) and his poor hapless daughter is forced to work as his Assistant just to prop him up.
And then one day the tables turn. Abby gets a skin fixation and finds that she can no longer bear to touch anyone, which is a bit of a bummer in her profession. At the same time Paul discovers by accident that he has an uncanny ability to cure people who have severe jaw pain, and once word gets out, his waiting room is jam packed.
Abby meanwhile takes all her self-absorbing angst out on the other poor souls in her life, like her long suffering boyfriend, and her best friend and Reiko healer Jenny, but she really doesn’t want to listen to what they say. And at this point, we really don’t care anyway.
Maybe her new aversion to touch had a deeper meaning or a metaphor for her struggling to commit to her boyfriend. Who knows. For a ‘comedy’ it had very few laughs, and as a ‘drama’ it had such an inconsequential story that it was impossible to like.
I would be very surprised if this one ever makes your local Multi-plex, and if it does, just know that I saw this so that you wouldnt have too.
★★★
