Plot Details: This opinion reveals minor details about the movie's plot.
I've enjoyed my two previous experiences with the work of Atom Egoyan, so I was anticipating a worthwhile experience when I sat down, today, to watch Exotica. Besides, I had picked up this film on the good recommendation of thevoid99.
Historical Background:Exotica (1994) was really the breakout film for Egyptian-born Canadian director Atom Egoyan. His earlier films, such as Next of Kin (1984) and Speaking Parts (1989), had provided more promise that delivery. After Exotica won the International Critics' Prize at Cannes, the young director was on his way to international acclaim. Egoyan followed his 1994 success with The Sweet Hereafter (1997), which took the Special Grand Jury Prize at Cannes, and also earned its director the Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay awards. With those two international successes behind him, Egoyan then turned to Felicia's Journey (1999).
Egoyan is married to actress Arsinée Khanjian, who appears in Exotica as well as all of Egoyan's other films. Also included in the cast of Exotica are several other Egoyan collaborators, Bruce Greenwood, Elias Koteas, Don McKellar, and Sarah Polley. Among the crew for the film, Egoyan's regular collaborators include cinematographer Paul Sarossy, composer Mychael Danna, and producer Camelia Frieberg. Egoyan's film style is highly innovative. He creates unforgettable stories and images revolving around psychological themes, such as emotional isolation and erotic impulses. Exotica features the sophisticated elliptical style of narrative that is a hallmark of Egoyan's work.
The Story: Since one of the marvels of this film is how the plot gradually unfolds, it would be unfair to spoil that experience for viewers with too detailed an outline. Instead, I'll simply introduce the interesting cast of characters. The most central character is Francis Brown (Bruce Greenwood). He works as a tax auditor for Revenue Canada, but is haunted by a terrible crisis in which he lost his only child. Adding to the trauma of the ordeal, he was falsely accused of committing the crime, until the actual perpetrator was caught. Francis's wife had died two months after the terrible episode. Francis copes as best he can with his pain, by spending his nights at a look-but-don't-touch strip club, called The Exotica, where he pays a young woman, Christina (Mia Kirshner), to lap-dance for him and talk him through a portion of his agony. Something about the relationship between Francis and Christina is both odd and special and discovering what it is constitutes a pretty fair share of the film's mystery and wonder.
Christina's ex-boyfriend, Eric (Elias Koteas), works at the club as a disk jockey and oscillates between voyeuristic satisfaction and jealous torment, as he watches the girl he still loves perform erotically for male customers, especially Francis. It is Eric's job to introduce the various dancers and to encourage the customers to fork up the money for individual performances at their tables. The owner of the club, Zoe (Arsinée Khanjian), is very pregnant. She had contracted with Eric for stud service, but intends to raise the baby on her own.
During the day, Francis is participating in a government investigation of Thomas Pinto (Don McKellar), the owner of a pet store, who is suspected of illegally smuggling exotic birds into the country. A customs officer (Calvin Green) is also involved in the operation. Pinto is both shy and gay and has little idea how to go about picking up other men. After acquiring two ballet tickets, by chance, Pinto peddles them outside the theater to a scalper, but notices a few gay men looking to be picked up for the price of a ballet ticket. Soon, he has learned that showing up with a pair of ballet tickets can lead to a full evening of entertainment. Pinto has less luck with the audit and ends up having to cut two different kinds of deals, one with the customs officer and the other with Francis, to avoid being sent off to prison.
Francis has a niece named Tracey (Sarah Polley), daughter of his brother Harold (Victor Garber), who is confined to a wheelchair. Since Francis cannot accept his daughter's death, he still pays Tracey to "baby-sit," which amounts to house sitting, while practicing the flute or piano. Tracey finds the arrangement rather uncomfortable and, even, deviant, though her uncle treats here with kindness and respect and pays her well.
Themes: One central issue of this film is isolation and despair, which has been Egoyan's favorite film theme throughout his career. In the strip club, men sit listlessly and passively, watching the dancers, but showing very little evidence of actual excitement. Thomas Pinto and other lonely gay men rendezvous impersonally outside the ballet house. Christina grew up alienated from her family. Eric lives in despair, still craving Christina, who is now unavailable to him. Zoe has to contract for a man to father a child for her. It is Francis, however, who is the most alienated of all. The source of his grief is of such a profound variety that he will never fully recover.
A second theme is the alienating effect of human relationships reduced to transactions. Every human contact in this film is bought and paid for, except for the antagonistic ones. Frances pays Tracey $20/hr to "baby-sit" in order to maintain the illusion that his daughter is still alive. He also pays Christina to dance for him and sooth his grief. Thomas in reduced to bribing men with ballet tickets to be his dates for a night. Zoe pays Eric to impregnate her.
A third theme is voyeurism. Amazingly, the voyeurism runs three levels deep! Christina lap-dances for Frances, who looks on. Zoe, from behind her one-way mirror, and Eric, from his disk jockey station, watch Frances watching Christina. We, the viewers, watch Zoe and Eric, watching Frances, who is watching Christina.
Production Values: The script for this film is one of the most brilliant that I've come across. The picture formed by the narrative comes together like a jigsaw puzzle image that cannot be comprehended until the last piece is slipped into place, and then the entire picture suddenly bursts into full focus with all the clarity of a revelation. It is simply a masterful piece of narrative construction. The last scene gives new weight to every scene that has gone before.
The characters are very well drawn and intriguing. Initially, we cannot understand why they behave as they do, but they simply seem all the more real for doing unexpected things. Later, when the pieces come together, the characters become still more fully real.
The sets are indeed exotic and beautifully photographed by Paul Sarossy. The film opens with a slow pan through a collection of exotic flowers, as the credits run. Later, in the strip club, we see some of these same plants scattered around as part of the establishment décor. We can almost smell the dense fragrance. This nightclub has the feel of a hothouse in more than one sense. The soundtrack boasts a delicious score by Mychael Danna, featuring Middle Eastern dance music and an Indian instrument called a shehnai. It is punctuated, as well, by repeated renditions of Leonard Cohen's hit song, Everybody Knows.
The acting is excellent, headed by Bruce Greenwood's moving performance as Francis Brown. Greenwood went on to roles in such films as The Sweet Hereafter (1997), Double Jeopardy (1999), Thirteen Days (2000), and Swept Away (2002). The lovely Mia Kirshner proved that she could effectively cover a performance range from innocent to erotic to impassioned. Don McKellar was outstanding in the role of Thomas Pinto, comporting himself not as a gay stereotype, but as a man who happens to be gay. McKellar's other work has included Thirty-Two Short Films about Glenn Gould (1993) and eXistenZ (1999). Also impressive was Elias Koteas as Eric. He has appeared in Gardens of Stone (1987), Tucker: The Man and His Dream (1988), Crash (1996), The Thin Red Line (1998), Art Pupil (1998), and Simone (2002). I loved Sarah Polley in the role of Tracey Brown and Victor Garber as her father, Harold. Polley appeared in The Adventures of Baron Munchausen (1989), Exotica (1995), The Sweet Hereafter (1997), The Hanging Garden (1998), Go (1999), eXistenZ (1999), and Dawn of the Dead (2004). Garber had just a small part in this film, but I remember him vividly from Sleepless in Seattle (1993). He has also played in Legally Blonde (2001) and Tuck Everlasting (2002).
Bottom-Line: This is a taut and intricately structured psychological thriller of the first caliber. Though one reviewer here at Epinions calls the film pornographic, it is not even close. It is erotic, at times, but the film is not about sex or sexuality in any significant way, despite several scenes in a strip club. In fact, what sex and nudity exists in the film is used to deepen the sense of alienation. The DVD provides a 1.66:1 aspect ratio and Dolby surround sound, but is devoid of extras. There are subtitles for the hearing impaired. This is a gorgeous looking film that slowly unfolds like a great puzzle.
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