Exotica is one of those movies so rich that you can’t possibly decipher it in one viewing. Oh sure, you can understand it once the credits roll for the first time, but like almost all great movies, it’s one that reveals new layers upon every viewing. The film’s impact is so great that I itch to watch it again as I write these words. Egoyan manages, in a hundred minutes or so, to make the viewer run the whole gamut of emotions and even to question himself. Movies like Exotica are few and far between.

The focal point of this multi-character study is a Toronto strip club called Exotica. Exotica is run by Zoe (Arsinée Khanijian), a lonely pregnant woman who works the club only because she doesn’t know what else she could do. The club’s DJ is Eric (Elias Koteas), a cynical loner and ex-lover of Christina (Mia Kirshner), a dancer at the club. Christina’s gimmick is a schoolgirl outfit; it seems to be quite enticing to Francis (Bruce Greenwood), who shows up regularly at the club to watch her dance. Thrown in the mix somewhere is Thomas (Don McKellar), a gay pet shop owner who finds his partners waiting outside the ballet, holding a sign that says “I Need One Ticket”.

Exotica unfolds almost like a murder mystery; you spend a lot of the film in the dark, grasping at what could be clues. You form theories as you go along, but not until the very end, where all the clues are laid before you, do you really know what’s happening. The payoff here is much more satisfying than many detective stories because you invest in these characters from the get-go. Egoyan has poured so much humanity in this film that it becomes a thinking piece as well as an emotional one.

You could liken Exotica to Altman films like Short Cuts and Nashville; they have the same slice-of-life approach of storytelling. The difference is that Egoyan has a much smaller cast of characters and a tendency to explore psyches more than events (in an Altman movie, a lot of stuff happens; in an Egoyan movie, a few things happen and the film spends more time reflecting on it). The characters here feel real; not only because of the way they’re acted, but also because of the way Egoyan presents them. It’s as if we’re actually sitting there at the Exotica, watching these characters go about their routine.

Exotica is set in a strip club, but there’s very little “smut” to speak of. There’s a lot of nudity (obviously) but very little of it is meant to be titillating. Miramax marketed this as some kind of soft-core porno, but in typical Weinstein fashion, they were all wrong. The sex in here is part of the scenery; it’s not a movie about sex. The film also prominently features a superb song by Leonard Cohen called ‘Everybody Knows’. It’s the perfect song to capture the mood of the film.

There is no main character in Exotica, but every viewer will undeniably find a character that they’ll view as the main one. For me, the main character was Bruce Greenwood’s Francis. Greenwood is a great actor, the kind who gets stuck in character parts but could easily be a Mel Gibson if he had the charm and agent. Greenwood is phenomenal here; his character is shrouded in mystery, and yet he’s the one guy that I felt for the most, despite the fact that there’s a shady aura around his actions. Mia Kirshner, who was only 18 at the time (and is now pretty much a hack actress in stuff like Not Another Teen Movie and the Lou Diamond Phillips show Wolf Lake), gives a startlingly mature performance as the reluctant stripper. Don McKellar, as the stammering, nervous Thomas, is also solid. Elias Koteas, in seedy shoulder-length hair, seems to be channelling Robert DeNiro in Cape Fear (if somewhat less menacing). Koteas overacts somewhat here and many could find him over-the-top; keep in mind, however, that this is a guy who talks sex for a living. In that respect, Koteas finds just the right note for the character. Khanijian (the director’s wife) is the moral conscience of the film; she seems to be the well-adjusted moderator character on the surface when in fact she’s as lonely as all of them. Sarah Polley also has a supporting role as Greenwood’s niece.

There’s a lot of ranting and raving to be done about Exotica. It’s a superb film from the first frame to the last, poignant shot. It’s not as emotionally devastating as Egoyan’s next film, The Sweet Hereafter, but it’s more involved with its characters. It’s hard to not spoil anything with this movie; it’s so tightly wound that revealing one thing will cause a domino effect. That’s what I like in a movie.


Recommended:
Yes

Viewing Format: VHS
Video Occasion: Fit for Friday Evening
Suitability For Children: Not suitable for Children of any age