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Full Body Massage (1995)

Director: Nicolas Roeg

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From Time Out Film Guide

Wealthy art dealer Nina (Rogers) is expecting her regular masseur Douglas (Burgard), but new guy Fitch (Brown) turns up in his place. Fitch has been around the block and picked up spiritual wisdom, but his approach to massage is more confrontational than that of Douglas, who was quite happy to press the right buttons to keep his client happy. 'There's more to happiness than just being happy,' Fitch tells Nina. But there's sadness in his own past. The script is all crystals, auras and Hopi Indian philosophy. It's as disconcerting watching Roeg become a born again Californian as it was witnessing the heady Catholicism of Cold Heaven. There are some signature touches - slow zooms on to inanimate objects that invest them with mystical significance; the clash of old and new cultures (Hopi/Western); the unselfconscious nudity, which Roeg handles like no other British director - but the film lacks intrigue, depth and narrative drive. Less Full Body Massage, more damp flannel. Still, it's worth it for the line, 'It's a shiatsu thumb for when I get tired.'

Author: NRo 0000-00-00 00:00:00

Time Out Film Guide