The Five Senses

Another ensemble piece, this time from Canada. The connection with touch, taste, hearing, smell and vision is a snap-on gimmick to give the film a raison d'être, which it doesn't need.

The running story of a toddler's disappearance involves three sets of people, while brushing the consciousness of two more. Essentially the theme is one of searching - for the lost little girl, for love, for sexuality, for understanding.

As with all such endeavors that use a soap operatic technique of interweaving multifaceted storylines, some are more interesting than others. The melancholic eye doctor (Philippe Volter), who lives for music and is going deaf, has none of the catty wit that flashes between Mary Louise Parker's cake maker and Daniel MacIvor's camp house cleaner. The serious stuff surrounding the missing girl contains separate strands of emotional pain, from the mother (Molly Parker), to a masseuse (Gabrielle Rose), to her sulky teenage daughter (Nadia Litz) who was minding the child when she wandered off.

Writer/director Jeremy Podeswa has a sharp, ironic eye and an excellent ear for dialogue. The performances are dazzling, especially Mary Louise Parker and Gabrielle Rose. The five senses exist solely as triggers for ideas, such as MacIvor sniffing his ex-lovers in the hope of discovering "the smell of love", which gives Parker (and half the audience) the giggles.