EXOTICA Movie Review

At a strange, somewhat dreamlike strip club in Toronto, a regular named Francis (Bruce Greenwood) spends hours, and many dollars, in the company of the beautiful Christina. Francis's obsession—and Christina's response—form the core of director Atom Egoyan's remarkably engaging wisp of a film, but there are enough subplots and peripheral characters with hidden agendas to make Robert Altman salivate. Egoyan—to his credit—refuses to tie all of these loose ends into a neat, boy scout's knot. We're never quite sure of the motives behind a lot of what happens in and around club Exotica, but we stay riveted because from scene to scene, these people are all beautifully delineated and consistent in their impulses and behavior. Exotica is a puzzle that we hope we won't discover the answer to, because we instinctively suspect that simple explanations aren't going to account for the deep, reassuring mystery of eroticism that permeates every moment of the film. Exotica—winner of Canada's Best Picture of the Year Award—features a feast of intriguing performances from a largely unknown cast, but it's Mia Kirshner's maddeningly mysterious Christina who serves as the movie's centerpiece, and our tour guide into a seedy but irresistible heart of darkness.

NEXT STOP … The Adjuster, Calendar, The Sweet Hereafter

1994 (R) 104m/C CA Mia Kirshner, Elias Koteas, Bruce Greenwood, Don McKellar, Victor Garber, Arsinee Khanjian, Sarah Polley, Calvin Green, David Hemblen; D: Atom Egoyan; W: Atom Egoyan; C: Paul Sarossy; M: Mychael Danna. Genie Awards '94: Best Art Direction/Set Decoration, Best Cinematography, Best Costume Design, Best Director (Egoyan), Best Film, Best Original Screenplay, Best Supporting Actor (McKellar), Best Score; Toronto-City Award '94: Best Canadian Feature Film; Nominations: Genie Awards '94: Best Actor (Greenwood), Best Actor (Koteas); Independent Spirit Awards '96: Best Foreign Film. VHS, LV, Closed Caption MAX