Adoration

Writer-director Atom Egoyan's atmospheric, quietly powerful drama about memory and grief follows Simon (Devon Bostick), a Toronto high school student, who was orphaned when his parents died in a car crash years earlier, and now lives with his tow-truck driver uncle Tom (Scott Speedman). When Simon's French teacher reads her class an old news report about a Palestinian man who sent his pregnant wife on a flight to Israel with a bomb in her luggage (which fortuitously did not explode), Simon writes an essay imagining himself as the unborn child. The instructor encourages Simon to present his story to the class as fact, and before long the tale spreads beyond the school to the wider community via the Internet. Meanwhile, Simon is viewing videos of his bigoted grandfather blaming his daughter's death on her Lebanese husband, which in turn conjures up memories of his parents—especially their last contentious dinner at the grandfather's house—scenes that are juxtaposed with “flashbacks” from Simon's school essay scenario. And another layer is added when a mysterious woman wearing an elaborate niqab appears at the uncle's home asking questions about the past. Egoyan ties all these threads together to raise many issues—intolerance, family bonds, the importance of perspective, the difficulty of communicating, the ease with which violence can erupt—as we follow Simon's struggle to discern where deception and imagination end and the truth really lies. Egoyan's refusal to spell everything out will frustrate some viewers, but those willing to embrace the film's melancholy complexity and achingly slow rhythms will find it an absorbing, haunting experience. Highly recommended. [Note: DVD extras include an interview with director Atom Egoyan (23 min.), a “Take Three” featurette (20 min.), a “Passengers” bonus scene (20 min.), a “making-of” featurette (12 min.), “The Violin Shop” featurette (10 min.), deleted scenes (7 min.), and trailers. Exclusive to the Blu-ray release is “The Fabulous Picture Show” featurette. Bottom line: a solid extras package for a challenging but rewarding film.] (F. Swietek)