Product Details

• Actors: Elias Koteas, Arsinée Khanjian, Maury Chaykin, Gabrielle Rose, Jennifer Dale
• Directors: Atom Egoyan
• Writers: Atom Egoyan
• Producers: Camelia Frieberg, David J. Webb
• Format: Color, NTSC
• Rated: R (Restricted)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
• VHS Release Date: May 28, 1996
• Run Time: 102 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 6302739861
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #303,067 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Insurance adjuster Noah (Elias Koteas) works with people who have suffered the loss of their homes and other disasters. He gets a little too involved with his clients, taking advantage of their vulnerability to control their lives--while only having the most glancing interactions with his own wife, Hera (Arsinee Khanjian), who secretly videotapes the porn films she watches for a government censor board. When another couple (Maury Chaykin and Gabrielle Rose) poses as part of a film crew who want to use Noah and Hera's house, Noah moves his family into the motel where he houses his displaced clients, bringing his separate worlds too close together. Though initially mysterious and distanced, The Adjuster builds carefully to a striking sense of loss and sorrow. As in his earlier films, Canadian auteur Atom Egoyan explores how people evade and contain the traumas in their lives. --Bret Fetzer

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Great Modern Drama about Sexual Obsession, October 26, 2003

By 

OverTheMoon ([e-mail]) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Adjuster (DVD)

Surreal as it may "The Adjuster" is still streaks and bounds ahead of most other sexual dramas. The story basically revolves around an insurance claims advisor (Elias Koteas) who helps people come to terms with the lose of their homes and possessions to some form of accident. He wife Hera (Arsinee Khanjian) works as a film censor who secretly films the pornography that she is viewing. There are various other characters who come into contact with the pair and sexual fantasies are the main theme that drives the story forward.

In many ways it is hard to describe without actually seeing it. There is very little plot but the movie does have some very memorable characters and it does have a good climax. It is sort of like a tone-downed version of a David Lynch movie and film director Atom Egoyan does wonders with the cinematography. The film looks visually wonderful and is very pleasing to the eye.

All in all this is a great drama but do not try and find too much of a plot here. It is more about the characters and their sexual dysfunctions. Some very memorable scenes throughout.

Well worth seeing.

16 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A CLASSIC OF CEREBRAL CINEMA, August 15, 2002

By 

L. S. Slaughter "silvanus" (Chapel Hill, NC) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Adjuster (DVD)

What little hope I held for the future of mankind retaining any intellect, capacity for introspection, or sense of humor is now gone due to the asinine, stupid, brain-dead comments below that this film is slow and stupid.

THE ADJUSTER is a great film. Wicked, funny as all get out, darkly comic, sexy as hell, and perhaps the most chilling and dead-on critique of '666' and consumer-society ever filmed. Mychael Danna's score is Byzantine-perfect; Elias Koteas is at his peak as an enigmatic, lost soul.

What's it about? Well, it's about us. Modern people in a listless, overindulged, sensate-conscious lifestyle flailing about in a Northern American state of emotional repression doing anything they can to give meaning to their lives, or rather, just accumulate more stimulation. And in such a society, who becomes a 'Christ' figure to people who can't afford one due to their lukewarmness? Well, an Insurance Adjuster, pal. Who else? The guy who evaluates your 'lifestyle' and returns a semblance of it to you. I mean, it is ALL 'lifestyle' now, isn't it? You don't need a Diety, do you? No, all you want is an insurance adjuster. He will even sleep with you.

The ending quotes from "The Sound of Music" in a comic/horrific finale. One of the main characters - unable to 'play house' anymore in the landscape of modern time and space - decides to burn down the Insurance Adjuster's house he has rented - starts singing "My Favorite Things" as he proceeds to extinguish them all. Filmmaking doesn't get much more sly than that.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Bizzare gem, July 3, 2001

By 

David C. George (Chapel Hill, North Carolina United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Adjuster (DVD)

Truely the strangest of movies; at the same time disturbing and hilarious. Only somewhat like director Egoyan's later films "The Sweet Hereafter" or "Felicia's Journey." A bit confusing, but well worth multiple viewings - underated actor Elias Koteas gives a great performance, as does the rest of the cast. Certainly not for the narrow minded or viewers of film purely as entertainment. Incredible visual imagery. This film is "very special" !