Exotica

Atom Egoyan, Canada 1994, 104 minutes

Exotica is set in and around the strip club of the title. "Cool!" go all the new lads out there - plentiful pulchritude on display. (Which there is). But, Exotica is not an art version of Showgirls. So, if you go expecting that, you'll be disappointed. In fact, if you try to approach Exotica as as a normal movie, you'll be disappointed. For Canadian-Albanian (!) writer-director Egoyan actually works in terms of "the cinema of disappointment". Consistently, he refuses to give the viewer easy entertainment or satisfactory conclusions, instead serving up food for cinematic thought. Exotica is no exception.

At Exotica there are a trio of strange, somehow connected, characters. All, if not actually addicted, are certainly obsessed. Eric (Elias Koteas) is the sleazy MC. He's madly protective of Christina (Mia Kirschner), one of the dancers. She dresses up as a schoolgirl and does her stuff, invariably to Leonard Cohen's "Everyone Knows", for Francis (Bruce Greenwood), a tax inspector. Egoyan gradually reveals, in a manner deliberately echoing the ritual of a striptease, the reasons Eric, Christina and Francis have for what they do. The story runs in the past and the present. A series of flashbacks show the trio, younger and less the victims of their obsessions. In the present, Francis audits Thomas (Don McKellar), the gay owner of a pet shop. Thomas supplements his income by smuggling the eggs of endangered species. Francis uncovers this, just as he is barred from Exotica. Francis offers Thomas a deal: If Thomas will go to Exotica on his behalf, and find out who got him barred, then he will overlook Thomas's smuggling...

Right from the start - as we see customs officers observing the airplane passengers from behind one-way glass, then Thomas checking his reflection in the glass, oblivious to his surveillance - it's obvious that Egoyan is going to emphasise the viewer's voyeuristic role. And, please remember, that the ending was supposed to disappoint. Hopefully, if you bear this in mind, Exotica will prove rewarding viewing instead (or instead, you could always go and ogle Mia Kirshner).

"An intriguing and highly seductive experience" - Premiere

Review by Keith Brown
Taken from EUFS Programme 1996-97