For some, Jesus is God incarnate. For others, he is revered, rather, as a prophet. For more again, he is remembered as a blasphemer and a subversive who was put to death two millennia ago. In other words, the figure of Jesus can be viewed as a symbol of the powerful and unremitting tensions that have existed between Christianity, Islam, and Judaism right down through history. At the same time, of course, if only all of the problems that exist here could be reduced down to something as relatively straightforward as a dispute over the significance of a historical figure.
In religious terms, then, adoration is the act of paying homage to a god. Moreover, writer/director Atom Egoyan looks to explore this concept here both through the media of violence, art, and social relationships and by focusing directly on the life experiences of a small group of individuals. The result is a non-linear film that initially teases the audience with the assorted pieces to its puzzle before settling down into a chewier and more clear-cut discussion about what it all might mean.
In other words, Canadian teenager Simon (Devon Bostick) comes up with an unconventional take on an equally unusual choice of translation exercise in school. However, upon reading his script , his French teacher (Arsinée Khanjian) encourages Simon to further develop his ideas into a dramatic monologue. However, when the latter decides unilaterally to take the project one step further again, his words provoke great debate and controversy in online chat rooms. Equally, in undertaking this exercise, Simon is re-opening old family wounds in terms of what happened to his parents. This, too, will go on to have major ramifications for all concerned.
Not unsurprisingly, perhaps, the resulting film is a decidedly contrived affair. Occasionally blurring the lines between reality and imagination, it is essentially a work that studies the unforeseeable consequences of intolerance, upbringing, and the manner in which the world has become so interconnected. In effect, a seemingly familiar line gets drawn from the Crusades straight through to the Holocaust, and on to the conflict in the Middle East and a failed terrorist plot, before finishing, though, with the fractured lives of a family who have experienced a seemingly unrelated tragedy.
In this respect, the film can be compared with Alejandro González Iñárritu’s Babel. However, unlike the earlier work, Adoration is more preoccupied with breaking the generational cycle of these terrible events than it is with putting our inability to communicate with each other under the microscope. As a result, it depicts the Internet as a place of open communication and it emphasises how art can be a way to break down barriers and engender unity, e.g. the gift to play the violin well or to make terrible events faraway seem incredibly immediate and relevant. At the same time, Mr. Egoyan is also wise enough to sound a cautious note in terms of how art, for example, can be used as a tool to maintain divisions too.
Finally, the fact that this film is aided in no small part by a tense and weighty score by Mr. Egoyan’s habitual composer Mychael Danna cannot be overlooked. In particular, this music helps to maintain an air of poignancy and gravitas despite the plot beginning to cough and splutter a little from the midpoint on. Equally, other than Ms. Khanjian being decidedly unnerving at times, there is nothing particularly remarkable about the acting on offer either. Yet, despite such criticisms, this film is definitely a worthwhile watch, especially as there is a satisfactory challenge on offer here to try and decode what Mr. Egoyan wishes to say. There are also some memorable scenes to look out for, not least those where Ms. Khanjian’s character literally visits Simon’s home in undercover fashion!
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