The Five Senses (1999)

User Rating:

6.7/10   

Director:

Jeremy Podeswa

Writer:

Jeremy Podeswa (written by)

Release Date:

3 December 1999 (UK)

Genre:

Drama

Tagline:

Nothing can cure the soul but the senses. -- Oscar Wilde

Plot:

Interconnected stories examine situations involving the five senses. Touch is represented by a massage therapist who is treating a woman...

Plot Keywords:

Cake | House Cleaner | Italian | Voyeur | Sex

Awards:

4 wins & 15 nominations

Cast

Molly Parker	...	Anna Miller
Gabrielle Rose	...	Ruth Seraph
Elize Frances Stolk	...	Amy Lee Miller
Nadia Litz	...	Rachel Seraph
Mary-Louise Parker	...	Rona
Daniel MacIvor	...	Robert
Philippe Volter	...	Dr. Richard Jacob
Clinton Walker	...	Carl
Astrid Van Wieren	...	Richard's Patient
Brendan Fletcher	...	Rupert
Paul Bettis	...	Richard's Doctor
James Allodi	...	Justin
Gavin Crawford	...	Airport Clerk
Sandi Stahlbrand	...	TV Reporter #1
Amanda Soha	...	Sylvie

MPAA:

Rated R for sexuality and language.

Runtime:

Argentina:106 min | USA:106 min

Country:

Canada

Language:

French | English | Italian

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

Iceland:L | Argentina:16 | Taiwan:R-12 | Australia:M | France:U | Germany:12 | Hong Kong:IIB | Mexico:C | Netherlands:16 | Peru:14 | Spain:13 | Sweden:Btl | Switzerland:12 (canton of Geneva) | Switzerland:12 (canton of Vaud) | UK:15 | USA:R | Italy:T

Filming Locations:

Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Company:

Alliance Atlantis Communications

Quotes:

Robert: [about a new cologne he has just received as a gift] It smells like love.

Movie Connections:

Featured in Past Perfect (2002)

Soundtrack:

EL FOOL

Love lost and found

"The Sixth Sense" bedazzled us last year with its supernatural trickery. This year, "The Five Senses" deserves equal success by being merely natural -being able to tell a human story intelligently. The film is a collection of love vignettes with each character cleverly highlighting one of the human senses. Writer and director Jeremy Podeswa has intertwined a human drama of finding a missing little girl with each player contributing an intriguing and equal share of the story, crisscrossing each other's lives in near perfect structure and execution. "The Five Senses" is what "Timecode" wishes it could have become. Mary Louise Parker heads a powerful cast, each member with an absorbing tangent that you merrily want to follow: Robert (Daniel MacIvor) the gay house cleaner who pursues true love by trying to find that distinct scent, Rona (Parker) the hopelessly unlucky lover who only sees what she wants to see in a relationship, Roberto (Mario Leonardi) her amorous counterpart too wrapped up in Italian cuisine to understand American courtship, Richard (Philippe Volter) the French doctor so consumed with his ominous deafness until he is rescued by an unexpected consort, Ruth (Gabrielle Rose) the massage therapist who tries to consummate her love for her deceased husband every time she touches a client, and finally Rachel (Nadia Litz), a composite of all the senses, a young woman blinded by guilt both past and present and yet using her senses to strive for forgiveness. "The Five Senses" is intelligent enough to show us how each individual uses their senses to try to escape their human quandary - some succeed and some don't.