Insanely mesmerizing to watch unfurl, Adoration touches on so many pertinent issues in today’s world, it’s a wonder your head doesn’t spin off. Fascinating because of its content and how it’s presented, Canadian filmmaker Atom Egoyan manages to out do himself again. Confusion gives way to clarity rather easy as you figure out the plot as the film moves along, but it’s the thematic material that might make you think in new ways. Terrorism, racism, technology, all offer some compelling subject matter for Egoyan to play with , but while the film is compelling, I’m not sure what message to take away from it, or even if I supposed to take away a message beyond tolerance and understanding.

Devon Bostick plays Simon, a high schooler whose French assignment takes on a life of its own. His teacher Sabine (Arsinée Khanjian), who’s also the Drama teacher, reads aloud in class an article for translation. The article is about a man that plants a bomb in the luggage of his pregnant girlfriend while she’s flying to Israel year’s earlier. The bomb’s intended to bring down the plane and kill all 400 people on board. Simon imagines that the story is about his parents (Noam Jenkins and Rachel Blanchard) who actually died in a car crash and left Simon orphaned years earlier. Sabine encourages Simon to develop the translation into a monologue, and Simon allows it to take on a life of its own by not telling people that this is something he made up.

It’s an interesting bit of social experimentation, and certainly Simon gets some quick reaction. He posts the story online and begins having webcam discussions with first his classmates, and then the near victims of the real almost-tragedy as this thing he created becomes some a lightning rod. Simon, of course, is trying to sort out his own conflicted feelings about his parents and the contention of his recently deceased grandfather (played by Kenneth Welsh) that Simon’s father killed himself and his wife in a car crash out of some kind of spite. But that’s the reason after the fact, we learn. Egoyan, through Simon, is trying to test the visceral response to terror by analyzing the thinking of a terrorist, while the split-screen, video chat room subs for the mob.

Aside from thematic elements, the film is also an exploration of a couple of key relationships in Simon’s life. His interactions with his teacher Sabine are interesting because they form one of those great student-teacher relationships. Of course we learn later that it’s more than that (not how you’re thinking), but the reason why Sabine pushes Simon to do it is left kind of ambiguous. And while her motivations and reactions remain mysterious despite the answers we get, Arsinée Khanjian is still really captivating to watch. The real charm in this film though, surprisingly, is Scott Speedman as Simon’s uncle. Speedman, who often seems more like decoration than an engaged actor, is really good displaying the frustration and desperation of the uncle without playing it in any kind of “big” way.

The director meanwhile shows great craftsmanship and patience in how he creates the story. The narrative sort of wraps around you like pita bread rather than unfolding in a straight line and sometimes it takes a little while for something in one scene to pay off. Careful viewers are rewarded, but some of the big question marks could be perceived as plot holes rather than dangling questions for consideration later on. The truth is it could be either, and that’s okay with me. I was literally captivated and enjoyed the film’s way of leaving things unanswered. One gets the feeling that this is but a mere glimpse of the dysfunction in this family, and by the time the credits roll you hope that things might be better off from here.