The Adjuster

Stars: Elias Koteas (Full Moon in Blue Water, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles), Arsinee Khanjian (Next of Kin, Family Viewing, Speaking Parts), Maury Chaykin (Dances With Wolves, Shadows and Fog, My Cousin Vinny). After the promise of his quirky but intriguing first three low-budget films (Next of Kin, Family Viewing, and Speaking Parts), Canadian director Atom Egoyan's fourth feature is a disappointing black comedy. Elias Koteas stars as Noah Render, an insurance adjuster who is overly devoted to his job. Having lost their homes to fire or flood, Render's clients all live in a motel where they await the outcome of their insurance claims. He visits them daily, tending to their emotional and sometimes even intimate needs (whether the client is female or male). His wife, Hera (Arsinee Khanjian), works as a government censor, screening pornographic films. She secretly videotapes what she's watching and then gives the tapes to her older sister, who lives with the Render's. As we watch the lifestyles of the not so famous but pretty weird Render's, a second narrative thread begins. In this one, a bored rich man (Maury Chaykin) discovers the Render house (which sits alone as the model for a development project that never got off the ground), and becomes fascinated with both the residence and the residents. Definitely an offbeat film, The Adjuster is more unpleasant than funny, and shares none of the probing thematic concerns (like the breakdown of the family unit in the video age) which govern Egoyan's earlier films. Audience: Those looking for stuff clean off the map.