Customer Reviews

Adoration [Blu-ray]

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

From first frame to last, I had no idea what was going to come next in this thought-provoking film from Canada. Others here may attempt to sum up the plot, but the dream-like, stream of conscious connections that lead from one scene to the next are what I found fascinating. The movement is back and forth in time, until it's hardly clear what the "present" is, while one assumption after another about characters and their motivations is turned on its head. What you think is true turns out to be only sort of so, and each revelation pulls you in even farther.

This is a movie for grown-ups, asking questions about the post-9/11 world we live in and wanting us to make sense of the fear and confusion around terrorism. Characters are not totally clear cut. A schoolboy, his teacher, his uncle, his grandfather, and his dead parents all draw our sympathy at times and then behave in ways that make us question their judgment.

Meanwhile, as a story about the boys' parents, which may or may not be true, explodes into chat rooms on the Internet, it ignites a fury of public discourse that takes on a manic life of its own. The social environment, as mediated by digital technology, becomes a kind of Bedlam, where reason becomes completely unmoored. Without giving too much away, the film finally finds a small respite of calm for its characters to regard each other with a degree of trust, while paranoia and pandemonium rage on around them. Well worth watching, "Adoration" portrays challenging ideas about the world we live in and argues for a measure of sanity to be found in connections between people who have little in common but their need to be at peace with each other.

I am new to this (Canadian?) director's work, so I can't compare this movie to his previous ones. I don't know if it is better or not, but I do know that it is quite good enough to be worth my time.
A high school student is encouraged by his French teacher (who also does the Drama group) to enact and develop a scenario, which is based in a true story, as if it was his own: the boy's (Palestinian?) father had put explosives into his mother's travel bag on a plane to Israel, while she was pregnant with the boy. The bomb had not exploded. The boy, Simon, reads `his story' to his class and then on the net.
The `drama' grows out of hand and proliferates in chat rooms. Simon lives with the fiction and makes wild statements. He gets feedback from people who were on the real plane that had been supposed to blow up. He is called by Neo- Nazis who proudly parade their Holocaust denial tattooed on their skin. He is called by a young woman who makes her grandmother show her camp number tattoo on her forearm. Young people debate the theory of terrorism.
In real life Simon lives with his uncle. His parents had died in a car accident. The grandfather had not been happy with his blond violinist daughter marrying a dark foreigner (a Lebanese?). To Simon, he calls his father a `killer'.
There is a real dimension of mystery. We do not know how much of the wild story is true. That's why any review must stay away from being too explicit with the plot.
The narration is slow, maybe slower than necessary. There are flashbacks and sidesteps.
Simon is the center, but more and more, his teacher moves into focus. She turns out to be more involved than expected.
If you want a simple tale moving from A to B with a clear message, this is not for you. If you can stand coming out of it without the feeling that you have been told how the world works, then you may appreciate the contemplative pace of this movie.

Soaking in Atom Egoyan's `Adoration', I sit here wondering if my analysis is really all that accurate. The film, while flawed in my eyes, is so controversially provocative that I wonder if it is `better' than I'm giving it credit for. It may very well be. I have a feeling that `Adoration' will fare the same way as Van Sants `Elephant'; a film that resonates deeply with me over time yet always feels like a film I should consider a masterpiece can't quite bring myself to.

The film revolves around a kid named Simon who concocts a strange plan to deceive his entire school by placing himself inside a real life story about a failed terrorist plot. When doing an exercise in French class, he gets inspired and begins to translate a news story in the first person, from the perspective of the son of a man who attempted to blow up a plane. His teacher, who also happens to be the drama teacher, eggs him on until he invests so much of himself into this story that it begins to become his reality.

What it spawns it pretty phenomenal.

The first three quarters of the film is pretty great. What happens once Simon's `fake story' goes viral is controversially chilling; watching people become sucked into this faux reality, living a tragedy that never really happened but now happened inside their minds because it has a face and a name now. Watching Simon begin to test the waters with his `humanizing' the tragedy by placing the title `father' on the face of a killer can raise the hairs on the back of your neck.

It's a gigantic set up, which may be the reason why the big `reveal' seems underwhelming. This is where I am torn. Last night while I was watching the film I felt agitated that the ending was so anticlimactic, but this morning the ending carries a heavier weight with me, since it subtly brings the film to an intimate place.

It makes it feel real.

Yes, I found Sabine's revelation to feel a tad forced and maybe even clichéd (after it was revealed it felt lazily expected) but upon reflection the actual ending, while a tad too sympathetic for the tones of the film, seemed appropriate. It did seem like an odd diversion from the apparent focus of the films first half, which gave `Adoration' an air of disconnect, but overall it lays well on one another. Like I said, this is a film that will bother me for some time to come.

The acting here is rather superb. The mood presented is also very well captured. I had issues with the handling of the flashbacks, for the music used and the color palate presented gave it almost a soap opera feel, which felt cheap and campy at times. I also felt that the films constant time shifts were very confusing in the beginning. It all panned out in the end, but it took a while to get the drift of what was being presented.

Still, `Adoration' is a haunting piece of modern filmmaking that does justice to Egoyan's name and talent (his '97 masterpiece, `The Sweet Hereafter', is one of the best films ever made; EVER). It will challenge you, and that is what all good films do. I also want to discredit the claims that this film is preachy. It is anything but. The film very subtly allows the audience to invest themselves in multiple sides of a story and try to understand the viewpoints of others without taking sides once. That is a feat unattained by many but completely attained by Egoyan here.

It's hard to categorize a film like Adoration. Basically it takes the topic of terrorism and wraps it around an interesting story about a teenage boy who wants to learn more about how his parents died. Without spoiling *too* much, the boy constantly questions what happened to his parents through interviews with his bedridden grandfather and an online debate team with his classmates.

However there's an interesting aspect to the storytelling, and the subjects of religion and terrorism are a recurring theme. It's nothing particularly complex or deep however, even though the writers tried making it appear that way. It's nothing more than a really well thought out storyline from where I stand, and makes us reflect on the 9/11 incident obviously.

Some of the twists pertaining to the storyline are fairly shocking, but only slightly. They roll along occasionally. In the end you just knew the scattered pieces to the puzzle would eventually fit, so to speak. I mean, you can't have a storyline *this* disjointed without a few revelations.

Truth be told, a film like this probably needs at least two viewings to fully appreciate, though you should be able to understand most of the events right away. The subtle aspect to the storytelling probably won't be revealed right away, though.

The subject of religion is honestly secondary to the other topics focusing around the actual storyline, such as the drama teacher who ends up playing the role of a *very* surprising twist at the end.

The acting is pretty good, though nothing extraordinary like many reviewers believe. It's good enough to get the job done and nothing more.

One scene involving a taxi driver and a short argument in a restaurant is absolutely hilarious!

I'm underrating just how *good* and captivating the storyline is though. You need to see it to really understand why it has received such high appraisal.

This is a thoughtful, intelligent and intriguing film from Atom Egoyan, one that is more clearly aligned to his more personal work on earlier films such Exotica and The Sweet Hereafter than some of his more recent commercial work. In a number of ways the subject deals with material that Michael Haneke covered in Hidden (Caché), using a family situation to look at race, terrorism and public attitudes and prejudices that come out of it as a response, in the process examining what this tells us about ourselves as a society. As such Adoration can be slow and contemplative, the subject rather dry and serious in places, but it is never as vague, allusive or as academically didactic as Haneke's film.

The central idea of the film is a fascinating one that immediately and persuasively draws the viewer in. Inspired by an article read out in class for French dictation, a 15 year-old student, Simon, has invented a story about his Arab father sending his mother on a plane to Israel with a bomb at a time when she was pregnant with him. His French teacher encourages Simon to expand on the story as a piece for her drama class, but crucially, without telling anyone that the story is a work of fiction. The incident sparks off a debate between the boy's fellow students and among the teaching profession, but it is also to have wider repercussions.

It's an interesting situation made all the more intriguing for the manner in which the director presents it, following several strands and including flashbacks, some of which may be real, others clearly invented, the debate taking place largely in the virtual medium of internet chat-rooms. All of this of course raises questions on the subjective nature of truth, impure motivations and the difficulty of establishing facts much less the truth. Even if the story Simon tells is false, is there not an underlying truth to it, and, since it gets people talking, does it even matter whether it is true or not? On the other hand, is just talking about it enough?

At times, the covering of these issues seems a little ...not so much didactic, confrontational or provocative (although it is all of these to a lesser extent), as much as rhetorical - not looking for answers as much as raising questions related to the world today and our response towards it. Crucially however, Adoration never diminishes the human question, relating it to real feelings towards of grief and bereavement, stemming from the tragedy of inexplicable deaths, and the wider impact this has on a community - bringing the film very much in line with Egoyan's Exotica and The Sweet Hereafter (not least in a significant bus accident here).

Adoration doesn't quite carry its premise through entirely satisfactorily, in the end revealing much that should be left ambiguous and over-burdening it with symbolism (the destruction of electronic media, the joining and separation of the scroll from the violin), but while it may be overly methodical and too deliberately paced for some viewers, the film is never less than intelligent, provocative and intriguing in its treatment of relevant modern-day issues.

By now I fully expect that every new Egoyan film will be a masterpiece. He is sort of like Shakespeare in this regard. This film is riveting to the point that I was literally hanging on every word in every scene. Egoyan writes his own films and then produces and directs them. It is his writing which is so superb, so consistently superb, from one film to the next. His actors pick up on the nuances and the finished product is pretty much always nothing less than astonishing. Certainly Egoyan's last seven or so films fit this description.
The film is reminiscent of "Ararat" with the long interrogation at the airport. It is like "Exotica" with the unfoldment of rather intricate relationships. And all the main characters and most of the minor characters exhibit an intensity that is quite palpable and keeps reminding me that Egoyan has, of course, done it again. If you have not seen some of his other films, you are in for a very special set of experiences indeed. In my humble opinion he stands alone at the top of his craft.

Atom Egoyan, an Armenian born in Cairo in 1960 and living and working in Canada, is a unique voice among contemporary filmmakers. His films rarely follow a linear structure, electing instead to rely on flashbacks and flash forwards to alert the viewer to respond emotionally to the fragments of story provided - those fragments emphasizing his obsession with alienation and isolation, the by-products of a society homogenized by technology, bureaucracy, and mob rule. His films have collected a wide audience of viewers who prefer to be intellectually challenged rather than be 'entertained': 'Next of Kin', 'Speaking Parts', 'The Adjuster', 'The Sweet Hereafter', 'Felicia's Journey', 'Ararat', 'Where the Truth Lies', 'Chloe', and this little masterpiece, 'ADORATION'.

Young Simon (Devon Bostick) is enthralled with the Internet and creating videos to place on the Internet. His parents died in an automobile accident years ago and he has been raised by his uncle Tom (Scott Speedman), a angry young man who has never married and whose only other family member living is his father Nick (Thomas Hauff) for whom he has little affection. Simon tends to his ill grandfather, videotapes him telling stories about his daughter, Simon's mother Rachel (Rachel Blanchard), swearing that Simon's father Sami (Noam Jenkins) intentionally caused the fatal accident, not unlike a terrorist action. At school Simon takes French from teacher Sabine (Arsinée Khanjian) who encourages Simon's penchant for drama by encouraging a story Simon has created: he postulates that Sami placed explosives in Rachel's bag while pregnant Rachel flew to Israel with the intention of exploding the airplane killing 400 people. Simon takes his developing tale to the Internet chat rooms where the story then leaks out to the parents of the teenagers chatting. The 'news' results in Sabine being fired from her job. Sabine visits Simon and Tom's house disguised by an elegant burka, and encounters the angry Tom who had already had a previous encounter with Sabine over a towed car. The intensity of the make-believe story of Sami being a terrorist creates havoc in the town, between Tom and Simon, and with Simon's relationship to his grandfather. There is a surprise twist to the true background of Simon's parents, Sabine, Tom, and the grandfather and Simon's fictional 'play' opens doors of emotional reaction from Simon's internet chatroom experience and from all of the people involved in the story.

While this 'summary' of the plot is confusing to read, so is the progress of the tale Atom Egoyan has filmed. He intensifies the drama with moments of utter beauty and shared love as well as condemnations from the people who are adversely affected by Simon's concocted 'lie', a falsity perpetrated by his 'accomplice' Sabine. Keeping the action level low, accompanied by the hauntingly beautiful music for solo cello and solo violin by Mychael Danna, and enhanced by the tight cinematography of Paul Sarossy, only makes this little film that much more powerful to observe and digest. As with all of Egoyan's films, it is the afterburn that lingers in the mind of the viewer that drives the power of the work home. Grady Harp, September 10

There is much to appreciate in Atom Egoyan's work. Having seen "Exotica" and "Chloe" I was curious to see if Egoyan could produce a completely satisfying film. In this story, a young high school student is prompted by his French teacher to develop a fictional account told from a personal perspective. Simon (Devon Bostick) so engages the class that his teacher, Sabine (Arsinee Khanjian) asks him to join the drama organization which she also heads. His story however is a harrowing one. It details how his father, who is of unknown Middle Eastern origin, put his then pregnant with him, mother on an airplane to Israel along with a bomb in the baggage. The bomb fails to detonate but is later discovered. His mother is detained but eventually returns to the U.S. We're not quite sure if this is real or not. Nor are we sure why the French teacher would have Simon read this accounting out loud in front of class...in English. The film switches back and forth between being a drama and a mystery. Simon's uncle played brilliantly by Scott Speedman has raised Simon as his mother and father were killed in a car accident. The accident is also a mystery given fuel by the accounts Simon has laid out in his writings. To over complicate matters, Simon puts his story on the internet. There are many twists and turns to keep one guessing, but in the end, it's all a bit too much to swallow. This is not a film for impatient movie watchers as Egoyan, who also wrote the screenplay, takes his time laying all this out.

This movie was intended to be a melodramatic exploration of human fear. A young man, an orphan, living with his uncle is exploring death of his parents in the attempt to know them better, since they both died when he was very young. His uncle, afraid to stand up to his own imperial father, imposes on himself a life of a blue collar tow truck driver seeking redemption for his own shortcomings that led to this tragedy. There is also high school French language teacher, Sabine, who also teaches drama classes in the same school. She has her own fears to conquer that deal with loneliness, loss of family and her own spouse. It is interesting to observe how all these characters get to have their lives unfold and mangle together. Young actor, playing a teenage boy Simon is too rehearsed in his acting and in my opinion that greatly undermined the movie. Interesting exploration, but not as nearly powerfully told to the audience as tom Egoyan's other movies. I found it to be overbearing at times.

Let me just say that this is a film involving one's own deep thoughts on identity, and not just of oneself.

Many emphasize around the theme of terrorism, but I think this movie is more about the need of self worth, often shown in sacrificing one's own importance for someone else, and in this case it is Simon, a teenager stripped of his parents at an early age because of a car accident.

With a grandfather playing the atypical well off ugly American who sees Simon's father as a terrorist and then there is his mother, another typecast naive innocent American blonde who falls for a charming foreigner, Simon is left with very little substance to grasp of his true family identity. This may be why he tries to create his own version of his parents.

Simon's uncle and his teacher are also attempting to do what they think is best for him, but both stumble on the reality that they do not know necessarily any better.

The one thing that is clear is that Simon is trying to form his own identity by portraying (and justifying) his father as having committed a terrorist act. At first he gets the attention he seeks via the internet, but soon finds it is does nothing to resolve his own inner turmoil. The internet becomes a mish mosh of opinions that really have no bearing on his initial identity or the reality of his father (or mother).

In burning the video of him talking with his grandfather, Christmas symbols, and purposely damaging a valuable violin of his mother's that the uncle needs to sell to help finance Simon's upbringing, Simon has come to realize he must look to the future and create his own path.

These seemingly destructive acts actually allow Simon to free himself from the past, a past who's truth remains unclear.

Simon has come to grips that he does not always understand his own actions and he may never know the truth about his parents, but in the end, all that matters is that he must do things for himself, and be judged by his own actions not by that of others.

This is an insightful look as to how we often judge others, and ourselves, too often by conjecture and symbolism, rather than moral objectiveness and truth.