For Reel

Director: Atom Egoyan

*** This is a special extended blu-ray review written for killerfilm.com.

The Film:

“Adoration”, the latest film by acclaimed Canadian auteur Atom Egoyan (“The Sweet Hereafter”), weaves a convoluted puzzle in attempt to deal with a myriad of themes. The way the story unfolds displays a masterful balancing act, but unfortunately the film is so void of plausibility that moments of convincing revelation are few and far between.

The film concerns a teenage boy, Simon (Devon Bostick), who fabricates a story surrounding the death of his parents for French class. The teacher, Sabine (Arsinée Khanjian), assigned him a sort of translation project involving a news story about a terrorist who placed explosives in his girlfriend’s carry on luggage. Not only does Simon translate this material, he also adapts it as the story of his own dead parents who died in a car crash years before.

Meanwhile, Simon’s uncle and care-taker, Tom (Scott Speedman), makes a humble living as a tow truck driver. He’s a rather unpleasant individual, intolerant of Middle Eastern people, and is challenged on Christmas Eve when a woman in a beaded veil pays him a visit and asks some deeply personal questions.

This is one of those films where everyone’s fate is linked (think “Babel”), but I don’t buy that as an acceptable excuse for the number of contrivances in the script. On top of Egoyan’s self-admittedly over-wrought puzzle, he utilizes quite a few clumsily handled narrative devices that fall flat on their face. For instance: the film, several times throughout, sets it’s focus on online communities. Video chat rooms debate Simon’s story, an assemblage of nine or more persons all conversing at once. These debates neuter the audience’s own critical thinking, and they are delivered in a way that no teenager has, or ever will, talk.

I commend Egoyan’s ambition, but I feel that this effort is too unfocused, too deliberate. The film is a blur, it’s themes often overshadowed by the never-ending musical score or the narrative’s own blunt implausibilities. Although well-acted and nicely shot, “Adoration” is a confused heap of pretension.

The Blu-ray:

Audio/Video: The video transfer, as usual with Sony, is quality. There’s great texture throughout and the image is very detailed. The soundtrack is also subversive and balanced – which, considering the irritating use of music in the film, isn’t always to the film’s benefit.

Supplements:

The Making of Adoration: This making of featurette runs about twelve minutes. Atom Egoyan discusses the intellectual reasoning behind the film, as well as the inspiration he derived the plot from.  “Making of” is a bit of a stretch as it’s simply a series of interviews about the film’s content without getting into any of the details regarding the production.

Interview with Atom Egoyan: An intimate conversation with Atom Egoyan, presumably an extended cut of his interview from “The Making of Adoration”. It runs about twenty two minutes, and Atom is thorough in discussing the role of our increasingly advanced technological world on human communication.

The Violin Shop: A ten minute behind-the-scenes feature that involves the actors and crew blocking and shooting the violin shop scene. Seeing Egoyan in action between takes is very worthwhile – he speaks eloquently and gives precise direction to the actors. This is an interesting special feature for aspiring filmmakers and cinephiles alike.

The Fabulous Picture Show: Running about fourteen minutes, this feature is a post-screening Q&A recorded at the English television show known as “The Fabulous Picture Show”. It’s a well-produced feature, but not much more than a promotional fluff piece.

Take Three: Both this feature and “Passengers” are extended cuts of the webcam footage used in the film. The debates, to me, feel incredibly phony -  I didn’t feel that they worked in the film, and I had no interest in watching a raw twenty minute cut of either of these discussions.

Passengers: See “Take Three”.

Deleted Scenes: The disc features a total of six deleted scenes. There are some interesting scenes that further develop the characters both as individuals and as components of a greater whole: whether that be a functioning part of a family, culture, race, etc.. These are much better than your typical deleted scenes in which, in many cases, you can see exactly why they were cut.

Theatrical Trailer: The blu-ray disc features the film’s theatrical trailer.

Previews: The blu-ray disc presents additional high definition trailers for the following: “Blu-ray Disc is High Definition”, “Moon”, “The Damned United”, “The Class”, and “It Might Get Loud”.

Conclusion: Although “Adoration” has big intentions, I found it to be a bit of a clumsy mess. It’s dull, convoluted, and contrived – moments of authenticity are sparse. If you’re interested in Egoyan you might find a few of his ideas interesting, but it didn’t do quite enough for me to recommend a rental.