DVD Pick: Adoration

Written and directed by Atom Egoyan, the English-language drama Adoration (2008) takes on terrorism, cultural identity, Internet video chat rooms and other challenging issues. The story is told employing a jigsaw-puzzle narrative and deliberately contrived to unfold as a mystery. But the film is nonetheless a moody, haunting rumination on life in the post-9/11 world.

The movie centers on a Toronto high school student named Simon (well-played by young Devon Bostick), who writes a piece for class about how his pregnant mother unwittingly carried a bomb — placed in her bag by Simon's father — onto a jetliner bound for Israel. Then Simon performs a dramatic reading of his piece on the Internet, causing a firestorm of responses in video chat rooms. Key scenes show his mother and father in the past as Simon remembers them or imagines them. The other principal characters in the film are Simon's teacher (Arsinée Khanjian) and his uncle (Scott Speedman), a tow-truck driver who is Simon's guardian. The teacher, who immigrated to Canada from Lebanon, behaves strangely as she insinuates herself into the life of Simon's uncle.

Symbols are important in Adoration. One example is the nativity scene constructed by Simon's grandfather, which is displayed on the lawn every year at Christmastime. Another is the violin scroll made by Simon's father to decorate the neck of the musical instrument played by Simon's mother. The film uses these symbols to indicate Simon's coming of age as he chooses which part of his cultural heritage to reject and which to embrace.

The Adoration DVD supplies over an hour and a half of video extras.

In the 12-minute making-of, Atom Egoyan describes the real-life 1986 incident that inspired the film: "A Jordanian man talked his Irish girlfriend who was pregnant with his child onto an El Al flight, and unbeknownst to her he had planted a bomb in her handbag." You also hear from the principal actors, including Arsinée Khanjian, who is the writer-director's wife.

Another bonus material is the 23-minute interview with Egoyan, in which he speaks about how cellphones with video cameras and the Internet permit ordinary people to record and broadcast images to one other. But despite the key role digital technology plays in Adoration, he insisted on shooting it with 35 mm film because the old-fashioned way yields richer and more beautiful images.

The 10-minute "The Violin Shop" shows Egoyan working with actors in creating the scripted scene where Simon imagines the initial meeting of his mother and father, and the film stock gives the scene a lovely dreamlike look. But the 21-minute "Take Three" is an example of Egoyan working in a different mode: he has three talented actors improvise a discussion as if they were in an Internet video chat room. The actors seem dead serious during the take, but they can't help bursting out laughing as soon as the director calls "cut."

Also on the DVD is a 20-minute take of actors pretending to have been passengers on the flight where the bomb was found, but now discussing the incident in an Internet video chat room. Finally, there are half a dozen short deleted scenes.

Release Date: October 13, 2009
Feature Film Runtime: 1 hour 41 minutes
MPAA Rating: R for Language
Aspect Ratio 1.78:1, Color
English 5.1 Dolby Digital
French 5.1 Dolby Digital
Portuguese 5.1 Dolby Digital
English Subtitles
French Subtitles
Portuguese Subtitles
The Making of Adoration (12 min.)
Interview With Atom Egoyan (23 min.)
The Violin Shop (10 min.)
Take Three (21 min.)
Passengers (20 min.)
Deleted Scenes (6 scenes, total runtime = 7 min.)
Theatrical Trailer