Physical Address
304 North Cardinal St.
Dorchester Center, MA 02124
Promantic and untainted by the subtlety, the romantic and candid drama follows Ruth (American actress Kathleen Chalfant) as she undergoes a major transformation. Told with a powerful economy that reveals details only when necessary, the film shows the situation as Ruth treats the cover as a leaven.
A few minutes later, an elderly man named Steve (H Jon Benjamin), whom Ruth flirts with subtly at first until he reveals that he is already married, arrives at her house to take her to his new home in a retirement village. When the staff there identify Steve as Ruth’s son, what is revealed is as shocking to him as it is to us.
It’s clear that Ruth has a short-term memory problem, though she still manages to leave the borscht trail clear. It turns out that he was once a professional chef, and one of the film’s funniest sequences finds him entering the home’s kitchen and starting to cook scrambled eggs and fruit salad for the residents.
This unique story from writer-director Sarah Friedland (whose previous films focused on dance) is based on Friedland’s experiences with people with mental illness – her family members and the people she worked with in a care home earlier in her career. At the same time, the film’s intense focus on bodies and sound (it’s not called Touch of Vanity) ties in with Friedland’s work as a choreographer.
Indeed, there is something playful and especially terpsichorean in one beautiful scene where the caretaker caresss Ruth in the swimming pool, rocking her soundly in the water like a free baby, while the song slowly echoes the remembered sounds of a day at the beach – black folk songs, black birds.
What is so touching about this moment and so many others is that the film does not treat Ruth’s change of consciousness as a great tragedy, a loss of self or an emotional transformation into a beautiful old woman. Ruth is still full of piss and a little bit of vinegar, a minx in a short-haired soignée.
You can tell there’s a bit of skepticism in the way he treats Vanessa (Carolyn Michelle Smith), a black woman, at first, asking her to start a relationship with her civil rights brother. And at one point, Ruth overhears Vanessa and doctor Brian (Andy McQueen) having a respectful and private conversation about how their elderly parents are not being cared for in places like this one in other countries.
Friedland’s subtle handling of these miniatures is impressive. But his greatest achievement here would be to cast Chalfant, who gives an amazing, beautiful and beautiful appearance. It may not be recognized by the awarding bodies, though, because it’s one that lacks prosthetics, expressive speech or body flexibility – proper skill and acting skills.
