User Reviews

The promise Jeremy Podeswa gave with his first film "Eclipse" is really fulfilled now in his second "Five Senses". Authentic atmosphere and the various aspects of a little bit neurotic life-feeling of metropolitain people is again in his new film. Podeswa has an astonishing hand for showing the daily tragedies with credibility and he really cares about his protagonists. Intelligent dialogues and good actors complete the very good first impression. A director with a great future !

Chosen as the film to start the Perspective Canada series for the 1999 Toronto Film Festival, "The Five Senses" explores numerous lives in turmoil that are also intertwined in many ways.

Shot in Toronto, the story revolves around the disappearance of a little girl and how it affects the lives of those who knew her and those who feel responsible. More predominantly though, I believe it is about the bonds that are forged from one person to another in a variety of relationships and the strains that can test them. From friends old and new, parent to child, employer to employee, client to vendor, lovers past and present. All of these associations undergo a transformation of some kind in this film.

The film is beautifully shot with interesting set-ups but is not edited evenly throughout the feature. Scenes with Molly Parker and Mary Louise Parker are tightly edited and executed nicely, while some other scenes just seem to be drawn out a bit too much, the pace is a slow one, with numerous subplots that attempt to liven the drama.

But for art's sake and support of Canadian filmmaking, I would prefer not to draw negative attention to this film. There are some very moving scenes and excellent performances, but at the same time, I'm not sure I can recommend this one to just anyone.

The sense of sensing identity unifies these people by means of there (organic) five senses. They smell, see, hear, taste and touch each other by means of their sixth sense:they discover it by theirselves and by each other by means of the same senses. There are many more senses... But it is beautiful to see a film which show so many senses only by showing five of them.

In movies, as in most other art forms, the greatest of works often come in the smallest of packages. Such is the case with `The Five Senses,' an independent Canadian production that chooses for its subject nothing less profound than a meditation on what it means to be human. Writer/director Jeremy Podeswa has fashioned a work of great poetic form and insight centered around a group of people who share the universal need to find true love and acceptance in a world where wounded and shattered relationships all too often result in magnified loneliness and despair. Like all of us, each of these characters gropes towards the dual goals of intimacy with others and acceptance of oneself that are essential for human happiness. Some succeed, while others fail – just as in life – but none of the characters is left unchanged by the experience.

`The Five Senses,' though it has a plot, is more of an emotional mood piece than a narrative-driven drama. Blessed with an outstanding ensemble cast, Podeswa is able to draw us in to the center of his world through the use of sensory imagery and deliberate, methodical pacing. In fact, one of the strongest themes running through the film is its examination of the part our senses play in defining our world and character. Podeswa understands that we have become desensitized to our senses. As a result, he uses this film to reconnect us to that crucial element of our beings. The quiet, hushed tone, the muted autumnal colors, the slowly moving camera, the haunting musical score all combine to create an atmosphere in which the audience can become conscious of every sight and sound that comes our way.

In our effort to establish meaningful intimacy with other human beings, we most typically rely on the sense of touch – yet, this can serve, Podeswa shows us, as much to trap us into a false intimacy as to lead us into one that is genuine and lasting. A number of his characters use sex as a substitute for true closeness, while others make a physical connection on a much deeper level. One of the most moving moments in the film occurs when a gay man – most probably an AIDS patient – breaks down in tears during a massage session, his heart broken because no one has dared to touch him in so long a time. This film acknowledges the vital part that tender physical contact plays in the totality of a person's humanity.

In a similar way, the film explores the beauty of sound, as one of the characters – ironically, an eye doctor, a man dedicated to preserving the organ of one sense – faces the prospect of impending deafness and yearns to create a mental catalogue of all the exquisite sounds of everyday life that he will soon no longer be able to hear and that we so routinely take for granted. Yet, like all the other characters, it is his spiritual emptiness and inability to make a meaningful connection with another human being that bring him his greatest obstacles to happiness. Podeswa also examines the part smell plays in making that vital human connection, as one of the characters – a lonely gay man – revisits his former lovers to take a whiff of their scent in an effort to discover if he can smell `true love.'

Yet `The Five Senses' is not merely a movie built on a clever `gimmick.' On the contrary, it breathes with the fullness of humanity because each of its many characters emerges as a fully developed, instantly recognizable human being. There are teenagers alienated by their own inability to fit into the accepted norm of society and made to feel guilty by their acts of careless irresponsibility. There are mothers terrified of losing their children, in one case, literally, as her young girl wanders off and disappears and, in another case, figuratively, as her adolescent daughter seems to be slipping away into inexplicable `strangeness.' There are adults unable to comprehend a life filled with failed relationships who strike out in desperation for that one last opportunity for happiness, often with the result that they end up further away from that universally desired goal than ever.

One of the most daring aspects of `The Five Senses' is that it does not succumb to the temptation to provide either a `happy' ending or even a conclusive one for all of its characters. The film acknowledges that life is a messy, never ending process of changing fortunes and personal growth and it stays true to that theme all the way to the end.

This brave, haunting and mesmerizing film definitely stands as one of the true movie finds of recent years – a true work of art!

Beautiful writing with a great cast follow by this magic of love and lost great combinations with the senses

This is one of those films that must have looked very good in concept but fails in execution. It has a strong screenplay and good actors, but fails miserably in execution. I will admit to a bias against films that are self-consciously arty, which may have prejudiced my viewpoint, but if you can get through this one without rolling your eyes, sighing, or squirming in your seat, then you have a higher tolerance for directorial self-indulgence than I do.

Every once in a while a movie comes along that takes hold and never lets go. The Five Senses does that, from the beginning to the end, in a way where you know leaving your seat will cause you to miss a vital part of the movie. Knowing this, you can't help but remain on the sofa, recliner or your favorite movie chair until the final credits begin scrolling the screen.

There is no need for me to detail the movie because I could not do it justice. The only way to get this movie, is to simply watch it for yourself. It's as simple as that and by not watching The Five Senses, you are missing out on a touching film.

Very mannered, over-decorated and Egoyanesque. It feels like a film made by aliens who've been observing human emotions but have never experienced them first hand. Still, it has a good cast and a well structured story that doesn't tie all the loose ends up too tightly.

An enjoyable quiet movie that examines people's perceptions of the world and themselves. Worthy of a watch. I enjoyed Gabrielle Rose's performance. She was good in "The Sweet Hereafter" and very engaging in this movie. The rest of the cast was equally good. I do have a problem with the title. I kept thinking this character is this sense and this one is that sense which distracted me from the unfolding stories. I think a more generic title like "Sense" would have been better. The ending was unexpected.

Films like these are in vogue - a well thought out plot involving an interesting cast of characters that are connected in some way. Some similar films include Pulp Fiction, The Ice Storm, Happiness and of course, the newly crowned American Beauty.

While the style of each one is different, what keeps the viewer in check is the story. In 5 Senses, J. Podeswa manages to weave the representation of each function with a character and how this applies to their work, their friends and so on. There is no basic premise here and like most Art-house productions, there does not appear to be a clear indication of where the film is heading. There is the sub plot of a missing girl, which somehow seems to bind the main cast together. But the film is not really in need of anything like that and in no way does it fall short of maintaining viewer amusement.

Well acted, well scripted and well shot. Obviously, Podeswa is a talent to watch.

"Five Senses" is a Robert Altman-like large ensemble meeting "All About My Mother."

It has a didactic theme as there's an eye dr. going deaf, a baker constructing tasteless, attractive looking cakes, a lover whose cooking tastes delicious but because of foreign language is perceived as not speaking at all, a cleaner whose job it is to eliminate odors seeking the smell of love, and no shortage of voyeurs of the 5 senses, including a massage therapist.

And it all comes down to that in matters of the heart and intimacy you cannot trust your senses. Nothing is what it seems.

The cinematography and soundtrack are appropriately lush, but will probably be fine on video or cable.

The loose ends are mostly tied up to some satisfaction, though not all happy endings.

It was nice to pick out Canadian actors from various little movies and TV shows. (originally written 7/30/2000)

I liked this movie and, interestingly, my much younger companion did not. Too meandering and so little happening, she said. And that is the quality that I found most appealing and more like real life.

There are gentle stories here woven around the central premise of a young child's disappearance and the reaction to this event is seen as background in many of the scenes which is a technique very cleverly done.

There is also the haunting singing of someone in an apartment in the building where all the interaction and often non-interaction of the other characters takes place. We only see this mystery singer at the end of the movie.

Mary Louise Parker was the only harsh note. I find her performances always stilted, cold and full of a hidden tension not usually necessary to the role she is playing and again she did not disappoint. I did not know what the earthy Roberto saw in her.

I liked very much the character of Raymond searching for the scent of love in all his ex lovers. I have a bias towards movies like these, of the Run Lola Run type. I feel they are more reflective of reality, no Hollywood quick fix endings just a slice of life beautifully acted and photographed that just stays with you a little longer than the A-B plot lines of most movies.

8 out of 10.

These are interconnected stories with the individual senses as the theme. Ruth Seraph is a massage therapist with sour teenage daughter Rachel. Anna Miller is Ruth's client and Rachel loses Anna's young daughter. Rachel is infatuated with voyeur Rupert. Robert is a professional house cleaner with a superior sense of smell. Rona is a cake maker who lost her sense of taste. Dr. Richard Jacob is an optometrist going deaf.

Some of the characters are more compelling than others. In the end, I don't connect with the stories that much. This movie's central idea feels more like a gimmick. I'm interested in Ruth and Rachel. However there are some characters that feel like unwanted interruptions in the flow of the movie. It's disjointed and I can't find its flow. It would be a more compelling story if it's told more straightforwardly.

"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.

This film was a remarkable surprise, complicated and charming, intriguing and quite lovely to look at. Not perfect by any means, this film is absorbing right through. It has humor, plot, plot twists, character study, and pathos, but all with a light touch. It was so thoroughly well-done and substantive, I kept thinking it was European, but the accents were American...Ah yes, it was Canadian, that explains the high quality. Three particular bits to note: overall the gay men in the film were effectively portrayed -- no caricatures. Second, the set design and locations were unusual and beautiful without dominating the film. Finally, the (subject of)five senses were nicely interwoven throughout the films -- nothing too heavy-handed. Grab it if you can.

My sister and I went to rent a movie one day, and came upon this one. We both thought it was more sexual, but it wasn't. Despite that, both of us loved it. Personally, if i find it on sale, I'd buy this movie without hesitating. Makes you think about how much you actually need ALL your senses to live. Very thought provoking.

After just viewing this film, I found myself appreciative of the attempt, but the sad fact remains: the film leaves you with so many loose ends, you have to wonder why Jeremy Podeswa started so many plot lines to begin with. If this was intended to be a character study, why set up expectations for individual conclusions? Most of the characters in the film end up in the same place they were where they began, but with not a gain in wisdom or understanding. In fact, the audience is left hanging along with the characters.

It was really well made, I like movies that are like this. The stories all connect but very subtly and it hits "taboo" subjects in an interesting manner. It really shows how we are in society also, showing things that we tend to think we have to hide from everyone because of the way they react. The only part I didn't like was the ending, but thats a matter of personal judgment, some may like it a lot. Well done, and the acting was fantastic :) It's a very interesting movie and well worth your time if you have nothing else to do on a Saturday morning, he-he!! Hope you enjoy it as much as I did, because it's quite a fantastic movie. If i've repeated myself a lot it's because IMDb won't let me submit anything that's not 10 lines or more.. sorry!

People have five senses (supposedly). So, why not make a movie about five people each having an issue with one of the senses? Wow! Getting goose bumps yet?

Such is the shallow nature of "Five Senses", another in a fad of boring "Magnolia" type wannabee flicks which doggedly hammers at its story of loosely interconnected characters in a futile attempt to make it fit its lame premise. We get to see actors moping about incessantly as though bearing the weight of the world on their shoulders. What we don't get is a story with depth, characters sufficiently developed so we can empathize with them, and most of all, a reason to care. A lackluster bit of trite, pretentious, self-involved, stylish filmdom fluff.

The five senses is a truly lovely film. It takes a look into the lives of several people, most of whom are somehow the embodiment of a sense. Yet the fact that they are so involved in a particular sense prevents them from experiencing life fully.

Sight is embodied in a young woman who bakes designer cakes. The cakes are visually stunning, but she has very little regard to how they taste. Sight is also the sense of a young man who voyeuristically watches men hook up in a park, but doesn't himself experience physical fulfilment.

Hearing is embodied in the bittersweet story of a doctor who is losing his hearing, and is concerned with hearing this favorite sounds one last time. Smell is personified by a young man who is convinced that love has a smell, and seeks out his former lovers in order to sniff them and see if they still love him. Touch is a massage therapist who seems to use her practice to regain the intimacy she once had with her now deceased husband. And finally, taste is embodied by the Italian lover of the cake baker who is constantly cooking, because it is his only real way of communicating with her.

These people's lives occasionally intersect because they all live work, or otherwise have ties to the same building. Their stories are woven around a larger story of a missing little girl. We get to know these people through short chronological glimpses into their lives that string together into a non-linear narrative. The device is similar to that used by Atom Egoyan, but the element of time is not distorted. In the end, not all of the stories are resolved, which is actually good because it keeps us thinking and allows us to revisit the characters and imagine a number of plausible endings.

The film has a beautifully austere formality about it. It meanders through its stories at a very thoughtful pace, and looks at them from a bit of a distance. We see very profound emotions before us, but experience them intellectually.

I can see that this film is not for everyone, but is great for those interested in a well crafted, thought-provoking experience.

Three groups of people in three unrelated stories occasionally intersect in a trivial manner. There is a massage therapist who cannot touch her daughter, an eye doctor who is going deaf, a prostitute with a deaf daughter, a baker with little sense of taste whose boyfriend cannot talk English, a gay man who is obsessed with odours and who believes that he can smell love. The film also bathes the audience in sights and sounds. The plot is minimal, just sufficient to propel us through three days of their lives. A central occurrence that runs through the three stories is the disappearance of a 3-year-old girl from one of the stories. The pace is slow and the mood is entirely captivating. This is a very unique film.

You don't leave the theater untouched by this movie. It reached me and didn't let go. I saw this movie five times and for those among you who missed it, be sure you can get your hands on a video or dvd.

It will stimulate al least three of your five senses...

I got this film after reading the back of the cover. It sounded wonderful: An exploration of the five senses through the lives of five people that interconnect. After watching the movie, I wondered where the movie that the box described went. I didn't learn anything about anything. The only good thing that has come from this film is the quote "I'm tense because your making me tense." Its been awhile since I saw the film, but I do rememeber that this film does not live up to its expecatations at all. If you've only seen Hollywood movies, then you might think that this is art, but otherwise, your in for a dud.

It's out on rent so, rent it.

Man, is really good. It deals with a few stories that are connected if you think about it, mainly by a building.

Love, lost, memories and discoveries are the main emotions that drive this movie. Again, another perfect film that's plot-less. This film even has an event, which has been done over and over in film but, just because you are not attached to a plot it seems like the most original event in the movie. Mothers, daughters, friends and fathers are all living their lives, like any of us, not noticing the small things in life. Our sense, specially sight and sound are over stimulated by this beautiful movie. The little simple things is what drives this movie and god that's filmmaking, that's art. Let me tell you how good it is, is so good, the movie was over and I stopped the DVD and started it again, I was it twice last night I think I'll see it tonight again.

The only reason I got sucked into this drab, dull, slow paced, nowhere-going movie is because there was nothing else on TV at 3am and I had insomnia! There were a couple of characters that were somewhat interesting, however, the storyline never delved deeper into their personalities the way I had hoped...and left them being empty shells of people with no real backgrounds or insights into what made them tick or why they were the way they were. The ending was a HUGE disappointment with with one of the major characters...(I won't say who or how, so as not to ruin it for someone else who might be into this kind of film)...but I was left feeling like I totally wasted my time watching this movie!! I would have been better off taking a sleeping pill and tossing in my bed until I fell asleep.