Egoyan’s Guest of Honour

Jim loved international cuisine, but he was not very Bourdain-like in his adventurousness. In fact, he closed many restaurants as a picky food inspector. His daughter Veronica thought it was an odd choice for a second career, but she did not understand her father, the former restauranteur very well—and vice versa. However, she will start to learn the truth as she prepares for his funeral in Atom Egoyan’s Guest of Honour (note the Canadian “u” in “honour”), which opens virtually today for the New York market.

Initially, neither Father Greg or Veronica understand why Jim requested a memorial service in his church, but he is more than willing to oblige. He asks Veronica to tell him something about her father and hence the film unfolds in flashbacks. It seems she always blamed him for committing an unforgivable sin during her youth, but the circumstances might be more complex than she realized. Tragically, her anger led to her own moral infractions. However, she would be punished for a crime she did not commit: alleged sexual improprieties with members of the high school concert band she formerly led.

Slowly, Egoyan and Father Greg will unravel the truth. The latter is a small but pivotal role, played with unexpected sensitivity by Luke Wilson. In fact, Father Greg is one of the most humanistic and redemptive priests portrayed in English language cinema since who knows what? Of course, titular guest is the center of attention and David Thewlis does some of his best work since the once under-appreciated The Lady (responses to which will now be complicated by subsequent developments in Burma). He is a conflicted and contradictory figure, but Thewlis fully conveys his pathos. Likewise, Laysla De Olivera is equally confounding as Veronica, eliciting sympathy and frustration in equal measure.

Atom Egoyan’s Remember

It is good for seniors to pick up a hobby, like gardening or whittling sharp sticks. Zev Guttman chose revenge. More precisely, he committed to its pursuit once his beloved wife passed. His memory is pretty porous these days, but his wheelchair bound crony Max Rosenbaum is as alert as ever. In fact, he has leads on the despised Auschwitz commandant who sent their families to their deaths. Rosenbaum provides the planning and the increasingly addled Guttman still intends to pull the trigger in Atom Egoyan’s Remember (trailer here), which opens this Friday in New York.

Somehow, Guttman and Rosenbaum were unexpectedly reunited in a Canadian assisted living complex decades after they both survived the notorious concentration camp. Guttman largely put the past behind him, building a new life with his Canadian wife, while Rosenbaum worked with Simon Wiesenthal tracking down National Socialists. Unfortunately, Rosenbaum’s failing body needs constant oxygen, whereas the dementia-wracked Guttman remains relatively hale and hearty.

With the help of Rosenbaum’s cheat sheets (bringing to mind a few indie thrillers from around the turn of the millennium), Guttman sets off in search of their prey. According to the old National Socialist hunter’s intel, their nemesis is living somewhere in the Pacific Northwest under the assumed name Rudy Kurlander. There will be four Kurlanders for Guttman to confront, so it is probably a good bet the fourth suspect will be the fateful one.

Remember’s third act implications make it dashed difficult film to take stock of. It might just be too clever for its own good. An interminably long interlude featuring a late Rudy Kurlander’s ridiculously anti-Semitic sheriff’s deputy son does not exactly help the flow much either. Nevertheless, Remember is a far cry from Egoyan’s recent misfires, like The Captive and Devil’s Knot. Regardless of its manipulations, the film pulls viewers in and keeps a hold on them.

Much credit is due to Christopher Plummer and Martin Landau, who both look like they are on death’s door as Guttman and Rosenbaum, respectively. There is a remarkable physicality and vulnerability to Plummer’s performance, whereas Landau’s crackling smart presence always gives the film an energy lift, even with his ever present oxygen tank. Jürgen Prochnow also adds some ironic bite as one Rudy Kurlander, but Bruno Ganz is largely wasted as another Rudy Kurlander.

Combining Holocaust themes with genre elements of any sort is always a tricky business. “Pulling it off” would be a strong term, but at least Egoyan maintains the film’s structural integrity while navigating some perilous straights. It is the rare sort of film that can engender intensely mixed feelings within a given viewer. Cautiously recommended for the work of Plummer and the award worthy Landau, Remember opens this Friday (3/11) in New York, at the Angelika Film Center and Lincoln Plaza Cinema.

Egoyan’s The Captive

Its population is less than ninety thousand, but evidently organized pedophilia a growing danger in Niagara Falls, Ontario. They now have a sizable police task force working full time on such crimes. The leader even becomes an Oprah style celebrity. However, they have not produced sterling results. After eight years, Matthew Lane’s daughter Cass is still missing. Past his breaking point, the desperate father is more than willing to take the law into his own hands, if he can finally find a target in Atom Egoyan’s The Captive (trailer here), which opens tomorrow in New York.

It has been a hard eight years for Lane and his wife Tina. She still blames him for their daughter’s abduction and so does he. He only briefly popped out to pick up a pie while she rested in the back seat of his truck after ice skating practice. Tragically, it was long enough for the pederast ringleader stalking them. As the years advanced and their marriage imploded, Tina started seeing Det. Nicole Dunlop for counseling, but her partner (and lover) Det. Jeff Cornwall still suspects Lane sold his daughter to a pedophile ring, because he reminds him of a guy he used to know. Seriously, that’s the best he can do after eight years?

Of course, Lane’s investigative techniques basically amount to him driving around looking for something suspicious, but he is still more effective than the cops, who will make a series of spectacular blunders. Eventually, Det. Dunlop will wind up in peril herself, following a head-scratchingly unlikely chain of events.

Frankly, it is a real shame Captive morphs into such a klutzy thriller, because Ryan Reynolds’ lead performance could have been a career game-changer in a tighter, more grounded film. He really digs in and digs deep as Lane. You feel his pain and his rage, without any cheap theatrics. He also makes the thriller mechanics work better than they deserve to, particularly an oblique confrontation with his daughter’s abductor late in the game.

Conversely, Kevin Durand is an excellent actor, but his performance as Mika, the pervert ringleader is beyond caricature. Everything about him, from his affected voice to his sinister sliver of a moustache screams “Chester Molester.” Yet, he still hob nobs with Niagara Falls’ elite without anyone getting suspicious. Rosario Dawson is reasonably competent as Det. Dunlop. She may not look like she is from Niagara Falls, Ont., but diversity in Canadian cinema is a good thing. As if on cue, Scott Speedman also turns up, underwhelming us as Cornwall, arguably the worst cop ever who wasn’t on the take, just to remind everyone this is a Canadian film.

There was a time during the mid-1990s and early 2000s people who did not normally patronize festivals and art cinemas still went to Egoyan’s films because they were so widely acclaimed and zeitgeisty. What a difference three or four films make. Many of his regular themes are still present and accounted for, but the narrative twists are rather clunky and therefore dashed difficult to buy into. Reynolds’ work is legitimately award caliber, but it really needs Ice-T and Richard Belzer. If you have DirecTV, it is almost worth watching just to see how Paul Sarossy’s uncompromisingly icy cinematography conflicts with the otherwise lurid vibe, but it is hard to recommended The Captive when it opens tomorrow (12/12) in New York, at the Village East.