The Adjuster

2) The one thing I can always count on from Atom Egoyan is an interestingfilm.This is a brilliant, and very dark, comedy with a sensationally twistedplot, fabulous cast, and great cinematography. Egoyan’s use of light isexcellent, as is the wonderful setting and scenery. This film is soimaginative that it’s beyond a story told on the screen…visual poetry.Andthe frightening thing is that as good as this film is, it’s not even hisbest effort.The pace was a bit slow at times, and at times the plot seemed to stagger abit. His film-making was much sharper in Exotica, which is my personalfavourite. But the plot is so well devised (odd and twisted, and full ofintricate details that are hard to really absorb the first time through)that it makes up for any lack of quality.Elias Koteas is really good in this; his best role save perhaps Fallen, andhe outshines Arsinee Khanjian who didn’t quite feel up topar.My favourite role in the film, however, was a fabulous performance by MauryChaykin as an unbalanced former football player. The gasoline scene is thebest in the film, and Chaykin’s expression and lines arepriceless.As well, look for Don McKellar’s excellent, though unfortunately smallrole,as Tyler (the rookie censor). He’s absolutely hilarious, and his deliveryofdialogue is nothing short of brilliant.All i all, it’s not Egoyan’s best effort, which means it still stands abovemost films. A really good quality indie-film, with a *very* original plot,quirky and memorable characters, and a strong cast. An easy8/10.

3) (I can’t believe the negative comments I have read on this page. I mean,sure, peoples opinions are allowed to differ- thats what makes this world sogreat blah blah blah etc… but this film is incredible and it would be ashame that someone would disregard renting it out on video because someonehad bad-mouthed it here.)

This film is set firmly in Egoyan country. We have dysfunction, we haverecorded media, we have beautiful shots, a wonderful score, great dialogue,fantastic use of silence (watch out for that one) and overall- you can feelan almost religious intensity beaming through the celluloid. My memory ofthis film consists of much more than just a plot- it is the warmth, thecolours that stick with you too. One more thing… Tarkovsky said thatfilms best asset was its ability to sculpt in time. Egoyans measured rhythmis hard to resist (obviously not for some people).

It seems to me though, that the complaints here are not to do with the filmsform. Of course it is well made. They have problems with the script, or atleast the order of things. Well, for me- the chaos and strange order ofthings in this film keeps it gripping- apart from the fact that you neverknow what is going to come next- isn’t this half chaotic order a betterrendition of reality than most? The content is also ’strange’ and notreally in keeping with ‘popular taste’. So if you are easily offended, ormore at home with Spielberg- then please feel free to stick to him. Butthis is brave, sumptious, disturbing, invigorating, and beautiful territory. I was pleased to visit it.

P.S.Elias Koteas’ performance is probably one of my top five favouriteperformances ever, up there with Takeshi Kitano in Bad Cop and ChristopherWalken in King of New York. Stoic, tragic, he hardly puts a footwrong.

4) Words cannot express how much I love The Adjuster. It’s actually been awhile since I saw it, so I picked it up again, and well, fell in lovewith it once again. It’s just that good.

The cast consists of a Canadian dream cast du jour: Elias Koteas! DonMckellar! Maury Chaykin! Arsinée Khanjian! They’re all DYNAMITE here,playing some low down creepy characters here.

Koteas plays the titular Adjuster in the movie, looking after peoplewho’ve lost their houses in a fire. Khanjian plays his wife, who makesa living from being a censor for the government (!!), Don Mckellarplays the new censor that was hired who catches on very quickly how tomove up in the world. I’d rather not get into Maury Chayken’s characterif you don’t mind lol All of these characters intermingle with eachother. There’s not a huge story to be found here, more of a characterstudy. And what a study it is, as you find out a little more about eachcharacter with every viewing, with some mysteries yet to reveal (WhatWAS with the Podiatrist?) Can’t recommend this movie enough. I have tosay this is Egoyan’s crowning achievement, and I’ve been waiting forhim to replicate it. (Instead, he’s been giving us crap like Felicia’sJourney)

5) To respond to a previous review that wrote that the fact that thecensor wife tapes porn from work to show her sister since they shareeverything together isn’t convincing—in the film the wife explains toher boss that she shared what she learned from school to her sisterbecause she couldn’t go to school, and that it is like that from wherethey’re from. Egoyan didn’t specify where they were from, but it isArmenia. The way I see it, I am convinced because it is a matter ofculture and family in a more depraved country, and I got itimmediately, and the fact isn’t that the sisters’ bond is strange, butlike the wife said, it is like that where she comes from. To me, themovie is an extreme dramatization of a man too involved in his work,which in the end destroys his life and family in a climate ofheightened modernity and an inevitable air of danger. In one of thefilm’s most gruesome scenes, a man is masturbating outside the glassslide doors of the living room at night while the wife’s sister iswatching one of the taped porn movies. In another scene, the"filmmaker" greets the family and gives them each an identical jacket,designed like tacky franchises sold in amusement parks. There’s acertain vulnerability about the way the family members take the jacket,as if the scene is trying to express an awkward sorrow about massfranchise and how it’s crudely threw at people and families. What Ifound very, very amused and surprised by is how throughout the film Iexpected, in the end, the obscene couple to be exposed to the familythen shame and explanation could to be provided as punishment for theirdeceit and nightmarish violation—but when the husband finallyconfronts the "filmmaker" while he is about to burn down his livingroom, he is shown as simply, understandably, INSANE.

Their are certain unnecessary or unsubtle little spots of ambiguity inthe film such as the wife’s prior, semi-romantic encounter with herfoot specialist on the subway, but then again, such details and thefilm’s insistence in unpurifying EVERY relationship the adjuster haswith his clients has its own reasons and means of defining and exposingthe main characters that enhances the environment of robbed values thefilm so determinedly tries to create. Atom Egoyan stands out as afilmmaker of "ideas", and in this film as well as most of hisimages/pace/style express a lyrical modernity through a rich andmysterious vision. He is the most interesting provocateur.

6) Atom Egoyan is an absolute genius, but I find it somewhat difficult todiscuss his films as they are so complex. He seems to make the kinds ofmovies where you walk out of the theater after it’s over and all the partsare clear in your head, but you can’t quite piece them all together. But youcan’t help but try. Sooner or later, everything falls into place, andsometimes it doesn’t. Either way, Egoyan makes you really think about a lotof issues.

"The Adjuster" is about an insurance adjuster who helps victims of housefires get money from insurance companies. There is a really great paralleldrawn between the adjuster, Noah, and Robin Hood. He quite frequently shootsarrows with his bow at a billboard sign that says "Sherwood Forest". He isessentially taking money from the rich insurance companies and giving it tothe poor victims of fires. We also have Noah’s voyeuristic wife Hara, who isa film censor for porn flicks. She films what they censor with a videocamera so that her sister can see what she does, as she has always sharedeverything with her sister. There is an extreme sense of bareness of thecharacters lives in the film. This is reinforced by the vast, open, almostdesert landscape around the suburb. They own the only house in thisparticular suburb, and it is in fact a model house. Even the books on thebookshelf inside are fake. All this seems to reinforce the lives that thecharacters live. This is a definite achievement from a cutting edgedirector.

7) Theres so many threads to this movie you have to see it more than once toget the full effect. Elias Koteas gives a subtly painful performance asNoah, as you begin to see just what a complicated life he really has. Hiswife and sister in law are just as multilayered as he is. The themes ofimpulse and denial run throughout the picture, particularly in the filmmakers life where him and his wife act out their sexual phantasies with aminimum of shame. A great work of art by a great director. definitely notmainstream in scope or material. Maybe the quietest movie ever made aboutthe nature of arousal

Agree with the previous post.. this film is extraordinary and I'mamazed at the negative reactions here. I would rate it as my favouritefilm of all..

It's an incredible and subtle meditation on what means to be alive, tobe human, to love. To be human and to be confronted by this fragmented,alienating, disturbing modern existence .. with our lives andinteractions largely filtered through technology and our experiences sofar removed from those of our ancestors and those before.

I was provoked and amazed by this piece of work – and I'd urge anyonewho wants to be challenged to see it.

James

9) At the center of Egoyan’s dark journey into moral and materialisticdevastation is Elias Koteas’ Noah, the mortal bearing the film’s title,carrying its weight — certainly delivering the goods in what must beconsidered his finest ninety-plus minutes on film. He never disappointsthisviewer (his cameo turn as "the Kisser" in LaGravenese’s LIVING OUT LOUDwasa landmark in my memory simply as a point of relief, an answeredprayer).

Mychael Danna’s score and Steven Munro’s sound design push THE ADJUSTERpastthe dream world threshold, unraveling it strand by strand to catch andspinin the viewer’s subconscious. This is one you wont shake easily. Egoyanmagic.

10) What a unique and challenging story to work through. The characters areso emotionally unavailable, it is nearly maddening. Even after severaldays since I watched it, I can’t stop thinking about what its purposeis. It requires a second viewing, if one is not too faint of heart. Iloved it, even though I did not understand it all the first time. As arecommendation for all of Egoyan’s work — if you’re all about thequick fix of action-packed entertainment, look elsewhere. If you wantan emotional, suspenseful piece of characterization steeped in a sortof horrid reality, well, this may just be the thing for you. It is abrain teaser. Good luck to all.

*There is also a charming short on the DVD for The Adjuster called "EnPassant". It is worth a gander.