The Five Senses

The central conceit of this Canadian drama is so simple, you wonder why nobody's ever tried it before: a movie based around the five senses. So, among the residents of a Toronto apartment block, we find a massage therapist (Rose) out of touch with her emotions, a cake decorator (Parker) who rarely tastes her own creations, a cleaner (MacIvor) who believes romance has a smell, an eye doctor (Volter) losing his hearing, and a prostitute (Bussières) who teaches him the delights of a soundless world. Various senses appropriately ticked off, the story's weave of destinies begins to exert its spell as the traumatic disappearance of a young girl in a park affects the precarious emotional balance of all concerned. Writer/director Podeswa presides over unfolding events with benign confidence, artfully concealing the narrative stitching which holds the piece together. Partly, it's due to the measured tone he adopts, giving the film a wise, cultured feel in place of rollercoaster melodrama, but it's also in casting players requiring little screen-time to convince us of a vivid inner life.