Adoration

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Adoration is welcome addition to Canada-based Atom Egoyan’s (The Sweet Hereafter) oeuvre that slows down and examines our fast-paced, technology-laden information age. Egoyan’s new film, like his politically charged Ararat, thematically tackles the fears and suspicions surrounding international travel, and attempts to expose what those fears are rooted in. Adoration riffs off of an actual failed terrorist attempt in 1986, for which a Jordanian man tried to pack explosives in his wife’s bag before boarding an airplane. In this film, brooding teen, Simon (Kevin Bostick), is implored by his French teacher, Sabine (Arsinée Khanjian), to tell his peers that his her was a terrorist under the same rubric, as a drama exercise. Simon, whose parents died in a car accident, is living with his Uncle Tom (Scott Speedman), and is also close to best friend Hannah (Katie Boland), though neither confidant learns of Simon and Sabine’s fiction until the escapade has spiraled out of control via internet video chat rooms. The film has a characteristically Egoyanian contemplative stillness throughout, and the mood remains heavy. Scenes of familial interaction, alternating between flashback and invented memory, weave a tale in which Simon’s fantastic plot is as palpable as the real one. Often, narrative is relayed through internet conversation, as Simon sits in his dark room debating ethical concerns amongst, at first, his friends, then teachers, then Jewish populations who take offense at the cultural insults Simon implies. While the film conveys how quickly information is disseminated in today’s media, it more seeks to address and question the validity and quality of our news, and our eagerness to judge what we know little about. --Trinie Dalton