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.

Director:

Atom Egoyan

Writer:

Atom Egoyan

Stars:

Devon Bostick, Rachel Blanchard, Louca Tassone

3 wins & 9 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Devon Bostick	...	Simon
Rachel Blanchard	...	Rachel
Louca Tassone	...	Young Simon
Kenneth Welsh	...	Morris
Yuval Daniel	...	Security Agent
Scott Speedman	...	Tom
Jeremy Wright	...	Delivery Guy
Arsinée Khanjian	...	Sabine
Noam Jenkins	...	Sami
Thomas Hauff	...	Nick
Martin Roach	...	Car Owner
Ieva Lucs	...	Berating Woman
Katie Boland	...	Hannah
Hailee Sisera	...	Jennifer
Lia Bellefontaine	...	Student On-Line

Storyline

Simon, a Toronto high school student, has been raised by his maternal Uncle Tom since Simon's parents, Rachel and Sami, died in a car accident eight years ago. Tom, a tow truck driver, decided to move to the city into Rachel's house and assume the mortgage, something he could ill afford, largely not to disrupt Simon's life, but equally to get away from his and Rachel's father, Morris, an openly bigoted man. That upbringing has made Tom a sullen and angry man. Morris only recently passed away. Rachel and Sami met when she, a violinist, brought her instrument in to be serviced, Sami the repairman. Simon now owns his mother's expensive violin, which Tom would like to sell to help pay the mortgage and Simon's imminent university tuition. One day at school, Simon's French teacher Sabine reads a French newspaper story from several years ago as a translation exercise for the class, the story about a pregnant woman traveling to Israel, her then boyfriend who, unknown to her, planted a bomb in...

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Plot Keywords:

internet | high school student | student | french class | controversy | 

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Genres:

Drama | Romance

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for language

Details

Official Sites:

Official site [United States]

Country:

Canada

Language:

English French Hebrew

Release Date:

24 April 2009 (Canada)

Also Known As:

Adoração

Filming Locations:

Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Box Office

Budget:

$4,700,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA:

$39,358, 10 May 2009, Limited Release

Gross USA:

$293,614, 11 October 2009

Company Credits

Production Co:

Serendipity Point Films,ARP Sélection,Ego Film Arts

Technical Specs

Runtime:

101 min

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The character of Tom was originally written as being older. Scott Speedman had read the script in Los Angeles and insisted on meeting with Atom Egoyan. When the director met Speedman, he immediately revised his preconceptions about Tom's age and made him younger.

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Goofs

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 end of 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 wooden Christmas figures now appear in the middle of the dock.

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Quotes

[last lines]
Simon: You looked happy.
Sabine: He was. We were happy.
Simon: And then what happened?
Sabine: Then he met your mom.
Simon: You let him go.
Sabine: No, I never let him go.

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Connections

Featured in The Rotten Tomatoes Show: Wolverine/Ghosts of Girlfriends Past/Battle for Terra (2009)

User Reviews

Atom Egoyan's World: Challenges and Theses

Atom Egoyan, an Armenian born in Cairo in 1960 and living and working in Canada, is a unique voice among contemporary filmmakers. His films rarely follow a linear structure, electing instead to rely on flashbacks and flash forwards to alert the viewer to respond emotionally to the fragments of story provided - those fragments emphasizing his obsession with alienation and isolation, the by-products of a society homogenized by technology, bureaucracy, and mob rule. His films have collected a wide audience of viewers who prefer to be intellectually challenged rather than be 'entertained': 'Next of Kin', 'Speaking Parts', 'The Adjuster', 'The Sweet Hereafter', 'Felicia's Journey', 'Ararat', 'Where the Truth Lies', 'Chloe', and this little masterpiece, 'ADORATION'.

Young Simon (Devon Bostick) is enthralled with the Internet and creating videos to place on the Internet. His parents died in an automobile accident years ago and he has been raised by his uncle Tom (Scott Speedman), a angry young man who has never married and whose only other family member living is his father Nick (Thomas Hauff) for whom he has little affection. Simon tends to his ill grandfather, videotapes him telling stories about his daughter, Simon's mother Rachel (Rachel Blanchard), swearing that Simon's father Sami (Noam Jenkins) intentionally caused the fatal accident, not unlike a terrorist action. At school Simon takes French from teacher Sabine (Arsinée Khanjian) who encourages Simon's penchant for drama by encouraging a story Simon has created: he postulates that Sami placed explosives in Rachel's bag while pregnant Rachel flew to Israel with the intention of exploding the airplane killing 400 people. Simon takes his developing tale to the Internet chat rooms where the story then leaks out to the parents of the teenagers chatting. The 'news' results in Sabine being fired from her job. Sabine visits Simon and Tom's house disguised by an elegant burka, and encounters the angry Tom who had already had a previous encounter with Sabine over a towed car. The intensity of the make-believe story of Sami being a terrorist creates havoc in the town, between Tom and Simon, and with Simon's relationship to his grandfather. There is a surprise twist to the true background of Simon's parents, Sabine, Tom, and the grandfather and Simon's fictional 'play' opens doors of emotional reaction from Simon's internet chatroom experience and from all of the people involved in the story.

While this 'summary' of the plot is confusing to read, so is the progress of the tale Atom Egoyan has filmed. He intensifies the drama with moments of utter beauty and shared love as well as condemnations from the people who are adversely affected by Simon's concocted 'lie', a falsity perpetrated by his 'accomplice' Sabine. Keeping the action level low, accompanied by the hauntingly beautiful music for solo cello and solo violin by Mychael Danna, and enhanced by the tight cinematography of Paul Sarossy, only makes this little film that much more powerful to observe and digest. As with all of Egoyan's films, it is the afterburn that lingers in the mind of the viewer that drives the power of the work home.

Grady Harp