‘Exotica’ Is A Puzzle With Few Neat Answers

An Atom Egoyan film is designed to keep you off-balance. Information is presented to you gradually and seldom is it complete. You’re forced to be something of a puzzle-master to put it all together.

The trouble is, sometimes what Canadian director Egoyan gives you just doesn’t mesh. That was a major flaw of his film “The Adjuster.”

Fortunately, his new effort, “Exotica,” is a smoother fit. This is a story that manages to meld murder, sex clubs, babysitting, tax evasion and animal smuggling into an intriguing story of love - twisted, perhaps even perverted, but love just the same - and redemption.

It isn’t for everyone, but what contemporary film - with the possible exception of “Forrest Gump” - is? Inherent idiosyncracy is precisely what makes Egoyan’s work so interesting.

“Exotica” boasts at least three main storylines. The central plot involves Francis (Bruce Greenwood), a tax investigator for the Canadian government who is haunted by a tragedy from his recent past. It is Francis, both through his profession and his obsession, who ties the film together.

By day, Francis does tax audits, and this brings us into plotline No. 2. One of his clients is Thomas (Don McKellar), an inhibited petstore owner who supplements his over-thecounter income by the smuggling of rare species. It turns out Thomas is not as clever as he hopes, which is why Francis has been called in.

By night, however, Francis frequents the sex club called Exotica, which is the focal point of the film’s third section. He is particularly obsessed by Mia (Christina Kirshner), a teenage exotic dancer whose act involves her dressing like a schoolgirl and stripping to the sleazy narration of Eric (Elias Koteas). As the club announcer, Eric plays music and urges the audience to hire the dancers for private sessions.

Each of these stories presents us with people who are somehow damaged. All are in pain, and a fascinating aspect to “Exotica” is the way each attempts to bear it. Francis visits Mia in the club, Mia mourns her lost youth even as she vamps for middle-aged men and Eric moons over Mia even as he urges those same men to take notice, if not advantage, of her.

Thomas, the least-drawn of all the characters, is the hardest to figure out. Perhaps he’s just looking for love in all the wrong places. Whatever, he gradually gets drawn into Francis’ fantasy-world-turned-real.

Egoyan benefits from at least one superb performance: Greenwood, who portrayed a handsome-if-a-tad-irresponsible doctor on “St. Elsewhere,” has undercut his good looks with a scraggly beard. A man driven by emotions, he doesn’t begin to understand, but which he accepts without question, Greenwood’s Francis moves inexorably toward the moment in which he will be forced to confront his past.

What he will do then - turn again to obsession or reach out for health - is left up in the air.

Just as is much of the film itself is left to viewer imagination. What made Mia turn to “dancing”? Why is Eric so angry? Who is Thomas, really? Egoyan forces us to find our own answers to these questions and others. He is more interested in creating a world full of imagery involving birds, mirrored reflections of reality, physical illness and torment than in providing anything neatly spelled out.

Of course, for a true puzzle-master, finding your own answers is half the fun.

MEMO: These sidebars appeared with the story: “Exotica” *** Location: Magic Lantern, Newport cinemas Credits: Directed and co-written by Atom Egoyan, starring Bruce Greenwood, Mia Kirshner, Elias Koteas and Don McKellar Running time: 1:44 Rating: R

Other views What other critics say about “Exotica:” John Hartl/Seattle Times: It’s absolutely fascinating while it’s happening, but it ends so abruptly that a reel seems to be missing. Robert W. Butler/Kansas City Star: Like the lurid lap dancers that populate its nightclub setting, “Exotica” is all tease and no touching. The latest from idiosyncratic Canadian director Atom Egoyan promises a strong dose of sensationalism and a riveting psychological study - and fails to deliver either. That can be forgiven (even applauded) in the first instance; not so in the second. What we’ve got here is a rather pretentious art film decked out with the trappings of a men’s smoker and featuring a convoluted narrative that so muddies what the film’s really about that you end up not feeling much of anything at all. John Scalzi/McClatchy News Service: One doesn’t like to indulge in stereotypes, but I’ve always tagged our northern neighbors, the Canadians, as a quiet, stable folk, who, thanks to their health care system and their tendency to sublimate anger through hockey, managed to stay normal. Then I watched “Exotica,” which shows Canadians of all types going through lust, anger, jealousy, covetousness and a whole other rack of basic deadly sins. Oddly, it’s reassuring to know that slap shots and free checkups only go so far. Bob Strauss/Los Angeles Daily News: Table dancing turns into a slow, engrossing striptease of the soul in “Exotica.” The latest, dreamy character study from Canada’s Atom Egoyan, it’s a film with a prurient interest that quickly refocuses from exposed female flesh to the open sores of men’s minds. Michael H. Price/Fort Worth StarTelegram: Too ambitious for its own good, “Exotica” winds up with more raveled threads than a conscientious viewer should tolerate. But if writer-director Egoyan misses wide, at least he aims high in attempting to come to grips with the torments and obsessions that underscore even the most ordinary lives.