From respected Canadian-Armenian director Atom Egoyan, a drama posing questions about identities, families and morals in our crazy, modern, internet-driven world.
Simon (Devon Bostick) lives with his uncle (Scott Speedman). Some years previously his father had crashed the family car, killing himself and Simon’s mother. But Simon has always suspected it may not have been an accident. In the course of a high school assignment, Simon writes an article in which he reworks his family's past and then puts the piece on the internet, effectively giving himself a false identity. He then starts to use this to try to investigate what really happened.
One review of the film following its Cannes screening described it as “a very Egoyanesque miasma of elegantly fractured chronology and provocative ideas”. Interesting. Very interesting.
I apologise, we feel bad, but there's no trailer available. ~Ed.
Arch auteur Atom Egoyan returns with a self consciously artistic outing requiring the audience to put on their thinking caps. It’ll make you think all right, but the conclusion you come to might be that it’s too clever for its own good.
The time-fracturing narrative employed is the perfect way to tackle oblique ideas like memory and identity. Constantly shifting between the character’s headspaces, its unorthodox structure pieces itself together like a puzzle - only when the final pieces of the story are inserted is the big picture fully realised. This allows it to maintain a constant sense of mystery and intrigue that keep you thirsting for knowledge and truth, much like those on screen. The only flaw with this approach is the lack of a truly engaging opening to reel you in; you have to work hard to immerse yourself in the world of the film.
The bigger problem is the way teenagers, including the main character, are represented on screen. At times, it feels like they’re trying to one up Dawson’s Creek for unnatural dialogue. Not helping is the mannered, affected style of acting that sees cast members resembling animated mannequins, not the real people the work is striving for.
Curiously interesting, but not a must see.
By Andreas Heinemann, Flicks.co.nz
Atom Egoyan's remarkable new film "Adoration" is a haunting meditation on the nature of received wisdom and how it can warp individuals, damage families and even threaten society. Shot on beautifully utilized film but employing images vividly from the Internet and mobile phones, it's an examination of the power that false ideas may have on people's imagination and beliefs when they are repeated over and over.
We've been told the NZ release date for this flick is Thursday, 19th Feb 2009.
Release date: February 19th 2009.
We haven't received times for this movie in this location yet. However these are updated as cinemas announce them, so check back soon. Hopefully the lovely cinemas in your location will choose to play it shortly. ~Ed.
