Adoration (2009)

Editor's Note Canadian filmmaker Atom Egoyan has spent most of his career exploring themes of identity and perception, and he returns to this territory again in ADORATION. Simon (Devon Bostick) is a bright high-school student who lives with his uncle, Tom (Scott Speedman), following the death of his parents, Rachel (Rachel Blanchard) and Sami (Noam Jenkins). When Simon visits Rachel?s dying father, he learns that Sami may have killed himself and Rachel by deliberately crashing their car. In Simon?s high school, his French and drama teacher, Sabine (Arsinee Khanjian), reads a story about a terrorist who tried to blow up an airplane by planting a bomb in his girlfriend?s luggage. Simon claims the story is about his parents, telling the whole school that his father placed a bomb that failed to detonate in his mother?s carry-on. Sabine suddenly becomes close to Simon, while debate about his father?s actions lights up the school, with Egoyan carefully steering his film in several unexpected directions. Egoyan is a master storyteller who knows exactly how to subtly manipulate the timeline of ADORATION to keep his audience on their toes. The truth behind the death of Simon?s parents slowly unravels as the film progresses, and the juxtaposition in values between Simon and Tom is thoroughly examined. Egoyan cleverly uses Simon?s obsession with Internet chatrooms to give insight into the escalation of interest in his false declaration about his parents? past, but he is always painted as a sympathetic character whose fantasy life has toppled over into reality as he struggles to come to terms with a terrible tragedy. Bostick?s performance as Simon is exceptional and thoroughly convincing, and pushes ADORATION toward the heady heights of Egoyan?s best work in EXOTICA (1994) and THE SWEET HEREAFTER (1997).

	Noam Jenkins
	Yuval Daniel
	Rachel Blanchard
	Scott Speedman
	Thomas Hauff
	Arsinee Khanjian
	Jeremy Wright
	Devon Bostick
	Paul Sarossy - Director of Photography
	Atom Egoyan - Producer
	Mychael Danna - Composer
	Atom Egoyan - Screenwriter
	Atom Egoyan - Director

Box Office
4.5 stars out of 5 -- "Mysterious and provocative, the drama will more than satisfy the filmmaker's dedicated arthouse base....An emotionally vibrant, unforgettable story, Egoyan's finest in years." 04/23/2009

USA Today
3.5 stars out of 4 -- "Moody, provocative and intellectually ambitious, ADORATION is primed to elicit impassioned discussion among audiences." 05/09/2009

New York Times
"[A] profound and provocative exploration of cultural inheritance, communications technology and the roots and morality of terrorism..." 05/08/2009

A.V. Club
"[ADORATION] marks a welcome return to the Egoyan of old, the one who could spin seductive mysteries out of disassembled parts and show how images can be manipulated into comforting lies." -- Grade: B 05/14/2009

Chicago Sun-Times
3 stars out of 4 -- "[A]bsorbing....The way the film presents emotions are clear..." 05/20/2009

Washington Post
"ADORATION is a delicate rumination on how innocence and truth evolve in the aftermath of catastrophe, as people stake emotional ownership in tragedy." 06/05/2009