(I can't believe the negative comments I have read on this page. I mean, sure, peoples opinions are allowed to differ- thats what makes this world so great blah blah blah etc... but this film is incredible and it would be a shame that someone would disregard renting it out on video because someone had bad-mouthed it here.)
This film is set firmly in Egoyan country. We have dysfunction, we have recorded media, we have beautiful shots, a wonderful score, great dialogue, fantastic use of silence (watch out for that one) and overall- you can feel an almost religious intensity beaming through the celluloid. My memory of this film consists of much more than just a plot- it is the warmth, the colours that stick with you too. One more thing... Tarkovsky said that films best asset was its ability to sculpt in time. Egoyans measured rhythm is hard to resist (obviously not for some people).
It seems to me though, that the complaints here are not to do with the films form. Of course it is well made. They have problems with the script, or at least the order of things. Well, for me- the chaos and strange order of things in this film keeps it gripping- apart from the fact that you never know what is going to come next- isn't this half chaotic order a better rendition of reality than most? The content is also 'strange' and not really in keeping with 'popular taste'. So if you are easily offended, or more at home with Spielberg- then please feel free to stick to him. But this is brave, sumptious, disturbing, invigorating, and beautiful territory. I was pleased to visit it.
P.S. Elias Koteas' performance is probably one of my top five favourite performances ever, up there with Takeshi Kitano in Bad Cop and Christopher Walken in King of New York. Stoic, tragic, he hardly puts a foot wrong.
