‘The Five Senses’ Grasps Human Need for Connection

“The Five Senses” is an elegant, deliberate film about loneliness and hope, connection and loss. What makes it intriguing is not its subject matter but the way Canadian writer-director Jeremy Podeswa approaches it.

Well-received at both the Cannes and Toronto film festivals and winner of the Genie (Canada’s Oscar) for directing, Podeswa’s film does more than use the senses as a convenient title.

Intent on exploring how hearing, sight, smell, taste and touch connect us to one another and the world, Podeswa uses them as entry points into his story. It may sound like a gimmick, and the film is hampered by some banal scripting, but the skill of the writer-director and his crew, especially cinematographer Gregory Middleton, largely keeps that from happening.

From its assured opening shot of a young mother named Anna Miller (Molly Parker) relaxing in a flotation tank before getting a massage, “Five Senses” is an artful, sensual film, fluidly directed and alive to feelings of all kinds. Even when the story bogs down or wanders into sterile byways, the deliberateness and beauty of its style create interest.

Podeswa’s script details the loosely interconnected stories of a number of people who live or work in the same Toronto building. Ruth, the massage therapist (Gabrielle Rose, the bus driver in “The Sweet Hereafter”) obviously represents touch, though it is not immediately clear that her bratty 16-year-old daughter Rachel (Nadia Litz) will come to voyeuristically represent sight.

Hearing is the concern of ophthalmologist Richard (Philippe Volter), who becomes obsessed with recording certain sounds when he learns he is going deaf. Rona (Mary-Louise Parker in her best performance to date) makes inventive and artistic cakes that don’t come close to tasting good. And her bisexual best friend Robert (Daniel MacIvor) is a housecleaner with such a highly developed sense of smell that he wants to try to discover what true love does to your nose.

Robert’s despair at being alone and his determination to reconnect with all his old lovers, to in effect sniff out love, is one of the crises of various sorts (Richard’s loss of hearing is another) that involve the characters with one another as well as their senses.

A cute Italian guy (Marco Leonardi) Rona became involved with on vacation decides to visit Toronto and stay with her, though he speaks no English. And, most problematically, Rachel, who is supposed to be baby-sitting Anna’s young daughter Amy Lee during a massage, looks away and finds that the little girl has disappeared.

Though in general these stories unfold in such a moody, delicate way that only in retrospect is the underlying skeleton visible, some of “The Five Senses’ ” plotting is schematic. There are improbable elements and narrative dead ends, and not all the strands are worked out with equal intelligence and insight. But misfires are inevitable with an ambitious film, and watching this one can be a sensitizing process in itself, making us more aware of our senses and the often unnoticed parts they play in our lives.

Most of all, “Five Senses” underlines the poignancy of wanting to connect, wanting to have more intense personal experiences but being blocked by our own deficiencies as well as everyone else’s. People, it seems, are all we have to hook up with in this world. Imperfect creatures, to be sure, but there it is.

* MPAA rating: R, for sexuality and language. Times guidelines: adult themes and some nudity during a lovemaking scene.

‘The Five Senses’

Gabrielle Rose: Ruth

Nadia Litz: Rachel

Mary-Louise Parker: Rona

Daniel MacIvor: Robert

Philippe Volter: Richard

Molly Parker:Anna

Released by Fine Line Features. Director Jeremy Podeswa. Producers Jeremy Podeswa, Camelia Frieberg. Executive producers David R. Ginsburg, Charlotte Mickie, Ted East. Screenplay Jeremy Podeswa. Cinematographer Gregory Middleton. Editor Wiebke Von Carolsfeld. Costumes Gersha Phillipps. Music Alexina Louie, Alex Pauk. Production design Taavo Soodor. Art director R. James Phillips. Set decorators Darryl Dennis Deegan, Erica Milo. Running time: 1 hour, 45 minutes.

In limited release.