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The Washington Post
June 5, 2009 Friday
Every Edition
Catastrophe is the internal combustion of Atom Egoyan's movies. Recall
the skidding school bus from 1997's "The Sweet Hereafter," in which a
small town reels from the deaths of 14 children, or the legacy of the
Armenian genocide that dizzies the characters in 2002's "Ararat." In
"Adoration," which feels like the completion of a trilogy of grief,
the catastrophe is prevented. Four hundred people do not die on an
airplane bound for Tel Aviv because security catches a bomb that was
placed in a pregnant woman's bag by her Arab husband.
The film follows a Toronto high-schooler named Simon, who is
encouraged by his teacher to translate and retell the old news
story in French class -- as though he were the unborn child of the
woman unintentionally carrying the bomb. The class is rapt by Simon,
who suddenly becomes a symbol in a debate over martyrdom vs. mass
murder. His story hits the Web, and then everyone is in on the
discussion (even passengers from that aborted flight). The bomb that
didn't go off aboard the flight instead goes off years later in the
classroom, on the Internet and at home, where Simon has been raised
by his brooding uncle since his mother and father died in a car crash
a decade earlier.
The complex story structure teeters between the revelatory and the
absurd, depending on how much you buy the irritating-then-intriguing
performance by Arsinée Khanjian (Egoyan's wife, the Armenian-Canadian
actor), who plays Simon's teacher as a woman whose hidden agenda makes
her behavior bizarre and self-righteous. Lending a much-needed dose of
realism are Devon Bostick, smart and searching as the orphaned Simon,
and Scott Speedman, pained and cynical as Simon's guilt-ridden uncle.
"Adoration" is a delicate rumination on how innocence and truth evolve
in the aftermath of catastrophe, as people stake emotional ownership
in tragedy. Simon finds himself without territory to claim in his
parents' death, and his teacher thinks the best way to the truth is
through a lie. Some might call this manipulation -- of character and
of viewer. Others would rightly call it an exercise. A provocation
of debate.
June 5, 2009 Friday
Every Edition
Catastrophe is the internal combustion of Atom Egoyan's movies. Recall
the skidding school bus from 1997's "The Sweet Hereafter," in which a
small town reels from the deaths of 14 children, or the legacy of the
Armenian genocide that dizzies the characters in 2002's "Ararat." In
"Adoration," which feels like the completion of a trilogy of grief,
the catastrophe is prevented. Four hundred people do not die on an
airplane bound for Tel Aviv because security catches a bomb that was
placed in a pregnant woman's bag by her Arab husband.
The film follows a Toronto high-schooler named Simon, who is
encouraged by his teacher to translate and retell the old news
story in French class -- as though he were the unborn child of the
woman unintentionally carrying the bomb. The class is rapt by Simon,
who suddenly becomes a symbol in a debate over martyrdom vs. mass
murder. His story hits the Web, and then everyone is in on the
discussion (even passengers from that aborted flight). The bomb that
didn't go off aboard the flight instead goes off years later in the
classroom, on the Internet and at home, where Simon has been raised
by his brooding uncle since his mother and father died in a car crash
a decade earlier.
The complex story structure teeters between the revelatory and the
absurd, depending on how much you buy the irritating-then-intriguing
performance by Arsinée Khanjian (Egoyan's wife, the Armenian-Canadian
actor), who plays Simon's teacher as a woman whose hidden agenda makes
her behavior bizarre and self-righteous. Lending a much-needed dose of
realism are Devon Bostick, smart and searching as the orphaned Simon,
and Scott Speedman, pained and cynical as Simon's guilt-ridden uncle.
"Adoration" is a delicate rumination on how innocence and truth evolve
in the aftermath of catastrophe, as people stake emotional ownership
in tragedy. Simon finds himself without territory to claim in his
parents' death, and his teacher thinks the best way to the truth is
through a lie. Some might call this manipulation -- of character and
of viewer. Others would rightly call it an exercise. A provocation
of debate.