Adoration review

Sandwiched between two starrier efforts (Where The Truth Lies and Chloe), Atom Egoyan’s cerebral drama raises more questions than it has satisfying answers for.

But that’s to be expected from a film that tackles post-9/11 anxieties, the boundary between fact and fiction and the way technology helps and hinders human interaction while unfolding its tale of concealed family secrets.

Intrigued by a news item about a terrorist who placed a bomb in his pregnant lover’s luggage, troubled teen Simon (Devon Bostick) imagines himself to be her grown-up child and presents her story as his own in a school project.

The resulting scandal has ramifications not only for his teacher (Arsinée Khanjian), but also for an uncle (Scott Speedman) who knows more than he lets on about how Simon’s real parents died.

It’s a complex, compelling brew, enhanced throughout by Egoyan’s hypnotic style. Sadly, it’s also weirdly remote and agonisingly slow.