IMDb > Adoration (2008)
Adoration
Quicklinks
Top Links
trailers and videosfull cast and crewtriviaofficial sitesmemorable quotes
Overview
main detailscombined detailsfull cast and crewcompany creditstv schedule
Awards & Reviews
user commentsexternal reviewsnewsgroup reviewsawardsuser ratingsparents guiderecommendationsmessage board
Plot & Quotes
plot summarysynopsisplot keywordsAmazon.com summarymemorable quotes
Fun Stuff
triviagoofssoundtrack listingcrazy creditsalternate versionsmovie connectionsFAQ
Other Info
merchandising linksbox office/businessrelease datesfilming locationstechnical specslaserdisc detailsDVD detailsliterature listingsNewsDesk
Promotional
taglines trailers and videos posters photo gallery
External Links
showtimesofficial sitesmiscellaneousphotographssound clipsvideo clips

Adoration (2008) More at IMDbPro »

Photos (see all 7 | slideshow) Videos (see all 9)
Adoration (2008) -- For his French-class assignment, a high school student weaves his family history in a news story involving terrorism, and goes on to invite an Internet audience in on the resulting controversy.
Adoration (2008) -- Open-ended Trailer from Sony Pictures Classics
Adoration (2008) -- MoviesTrailer.org - Trailer (Flash)

Overview

User Rating:
6.5/10   921 votes
MOVIEmeter: ?
Down 9% in popularity this week. See why on IMDbPro.
Director:
Writer:
Atom Egoyan (written by)
Contact:
View company contact information for Adoration on IMDbPro.
Release Date:
15 April 2009 (France) more
Genre:
Plot:
For his French-class assignment, a high school student weaves his family history in a news story involving terrorism, and goes on to invite an Internet audience in on the resulting controversy. | full synopsis
Awards:
1 win & 3 nominations more
NewsDesk:
(47 articles)
Sony Has Fatal Attraction for Egoyan's 'Chloe'
 (From ioncinema. 12 December 2009, 6:25 PM, PST)

Exclusive Video: Watch the First 7 Minutes of Adoration!
 (From MovieWeb. 14 October 2009, 7:56 AM, PDT)

User Comments:
Interesting Dramatic Experiment more (21 total)

Cast

  (Credited cast)

Scott Speedman ... Tom
Rachel Blanchard ... Rachel
Kenneth Welsh ... Morris

Devon Bostick ... Simon

Aaron Poole
Dominic Cuzzocrea ... Cab Driver

Katie Boland ... Hannah
Noam Jenkins ... Sami

Arsinée Khanjian ... Sabine

Geraldine O'Rawe ... Carole

Duane Murray ... Parking Security

Hailee Sisera ... Jennifer
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Maury Chaykin

Soo Garay ... Anna / daughter
Ieva Lucs ... Irate Woman
more
Create a character page for: ?

Additional Details

MPAA:
Rated R for language.
Runtime:
101 min | USA:100 min | France:100 min
Country:
Language:
Color:
Aspect Ratio:
1.85 : 1 more
Certification:
USA:R | Netherlands:12 | Canada:14A (Alberta/Manitoba/Ontario) | Canada:G (Quebec) | Canada:PG (British Columbia) | Australia:M | Singapore:M18
Filming Locations:
Company:

Fun Stuff

Goofs:
Continuity: In the scene at the end of the film at his grandfather's empty lake house, Simon first unloaded the wooden Christmas figures from his duffel bag onto a pile of firewood on the dock. He then went into his grandfather's workshop and sawed the scroll off of his mother's violin. With his phone, he took a picture of the severed scroll in his hand with the dock in the background, but the dock was empty. more

FAQ

A Note Regarding Spoilers
How much sex, violence, and profanity are in this movie?
Is "Adoration" based on a book?
more
10 out of 15 people found the following comment useful.
Interesting Dramatic Experiment, 31 May 2009
7/10
Author: David H. Schleicher from New Jersey, USA

A teenager (Devon Bostick) who was orphaned after the tragic deaths of his parents is prompted by his teacher (Arsinee Khanjian) to deliver a fictional monologue about his father's failed terrorist act as fact in an elaborate "dramatic exercise" in Armenian-Canadian auteur Atom Egoyan's latest thought-provoking piece of abstraction "Adoration". As the fiction spins out of control over the internet, the true motives of those involved in the lie are revealed and back-stories come collapsing in on each other in Egoyan's signature elliptical style.

Egoyan, as always, gives patient viewers plenty to chew on. Like the young man's monologue that marries a true story to a false one about his parents, "Adoration" itself is an interesting dramatic experiment designed to provoke. It tackles many issues including the motives of terrorists, fractured familial relationships, the hollowness of alleged connections made through modern technology and the dangers of thinking those connections can replace real face-to-face human interaction. Though I always question Egoyan's motive in casting his wife Arsinee Khanjian in his films, in many ways, she gives her most understated and powerful performance here. Bostick does a decent job with a tough role, though Rachel Blanchard is curiously flat in the flashbacks as his mother. The true revelation is Scott Speedman as the troubled tow-truck driver who reluctantly steps in to raise his sister's son after she dies. His story arc proves to be the most involving, though one wishes his background had been more developed.

The bizarre detour into sleazy mediocrity with "Where the Truth Lies" seems to have made Egoyan a little rusty as he returns to a more familiar form here for those who have been watching the arc of his career. The elliptical folding in of the converging plot lines seems clumsier in "Adoration" than it did in his earlier works, and the "big reveal" comes a few scenes too early and sucks out the emotional impact. Unlike "Exotica" which had the swagger of a young auteur at the top of his game, or "The Sweet Hereafter" which came from the sublime source material of novelist Russell Banks, "Adoration" represents Egoyan bruised from years of wear left to his own devices. Though compelling, he gets the best of himself and let's the ideas take over the characters. He also relies far too much on visuals of non-characters in chat rooms or of people being recorded with cameras. However, Egoyan scores when Mychael Danna lends his musical compositions. The frequent collaborator does a magnificent job creating a haunting score with a recurring violin motif that plays integral to one of the back-stories.

Back in the late 1990's Atom Egoyan was in a league of his own and master of his own style. In the past ten years, however, international cinema has seen the emergence of filmmakers like Mexico's Alejandro Gonzalez Innaritu ("Amores Perros", "21 Grams" and "Babel") and Germany's Fa-tih Akin (whose superb "The Edge of Heaven" deserved a bigger audience stateside last year). They often tackle similar themes in an elliptical Egoyanesque manner. But because their films are presented on a larger scale and infused with a certain energy and immediacy, Egoyan's films, in all their isolated scholarly austerity, have been unfairly left out in the cold. "Adoration" may not be Egoyan's best, but it proves he still has some good ideas in him and he isn't ready to be dismissed just yet.

Was the above comment useful to you?
more (21 total)

Message Boards

Discuss this movie with other users on IMDb message board for Adoration (2008)
Recent Posts (updated daily)User
Theatrical Release U.K. detlef_eilers
Baloney simon-1184
Adoration umakoshi
Burning the Nativity figures. rwilliams4254
Just plain afwul... yan-trussart
Im missing something... ser_insociable
more

Recommendations

If you enjoyed this title, our database also recommends:
- - - - -
Boy A River's Edge Notes on a Scandal The Believer Haven
IMDb User Rating:
IMDb User Rating:
IMDb User Rating:
IMDb User Rating:
IMDb User Rating:
Show more recommendations

Related Links

Full cast and crew Company credits External reviews
News articles IMDb Drama section IMDb Canada section
Add this title to MyMovies

You may report errors and omissions on this page to the IMDb database managers. They will be examined and if approved will be included in a future update. Clicking the 'Update' button will take you through a step-by-step process.