Friday Oct. 16th, 2009
Adoration (2008) 


Atom Egoyan has made some great films. The Sweet Hereafter and Felicia's Journey are both personal favorites, so I was excited to sit down and watch his latest offering Adoration, and while I was not bored I was not impressed. Egoyan delivers his ideas with a sledgehammer, having his characters debate post 9/11 religious intolerance. The story centers on a young man whose parents died in a car accident. As a school project he writes a story wherein his parents were involved in a terrorist plot. He and his teacher keep the fact that it's fiction to themselves, and soon the internet is buzzing about his terrorist father. I can't say I completely disliked the film. I stayed with it and was somewhat entertained, but I groaned more than a few times at the overbearing dialogue. I think good drama will provoke discussion not dramatize it. I was left feeling as if I'd been in a high-school chat room or dorm room discussion on terrorism. I heard nothing I hadn't heard before. There were no real ideas here which is always frustrating. Maybe I have higher expectations of Egoyan, but I know he's capable of far better films than this. I know there was some commentary on our new internet-age ways of communication, but again, nothing I haven't heard before. I'm still with Atom, but this is one of his least impressive films.