For a movie set in a full-body massage parlour, Rub & Tug is unusually bloodless. The comedy concerns the whole massage subculture and the war for control between the working women and the male massage parlour owners.

You can see the potential, but the final result is like a typical TV sitcom. That is not a compliment.

Lindy Booth, Tara Spencer-Nairn and Kira Clavell star as the three women who work at the massage parlour. Since their boss wants more time on the golf course, he hires a new guy (Don McKellar), the shy Conrad, to keep an eye on the place. Conrad is charged with making sure that none of the women is involved in "full service" -- as having sex with clients constitutes the sort of activity that attracts the police and gets the business shut down.

Conrad takes his job seriously. This is not a good thing, and the three women do their best to get him on side. At first he is over-protective and paternalistic, but the women eventually show him who's boss.

Each of the women has her reasons for being there -- Kira Clavell plays an illegal immigrant trying to support her family far away. Tara Spencer-Nairn is a tough-minded business woman who takes good care of her portfolio. Lindy Booth is a sweet woman who just wants her boyfriend not to leave her. The women are a blonde, a brunette and a redhead, by the way. They swear and smoke ostentatiously, but you never really believe any one of them is a massage parlour employee. As for Don McKellar's performance, ditto.

None of the actors in the film was given enough to work with.

Rub & Tug shows the strength of the women and their control of the situation, then turns that notion upside down with some curious -- and meant to be comedic -- plot twists. It doesn't work.

There's nothing about Rub & Tug that's truly off-putting. It's just dull. Mostly, it is amateurish and visually flat.

The film is a debut feature from Soo Lyu, an award-winning filmmaker known for her short films.

(This film is rated AA)

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