I have been a fan of Egoyan's for a number of years since seeing "Speaking Parts" several years ago. I have been very impressed with him up until this point. This latest effort, however, is not up to his usual standards.
It contains a lot of the usual elements of an Egoyan film such as ubiquitous appearances by well known Canadian actors (ie Don McKellar, Garbrielle Rose, Maury Chaykin, Rachel Blanchard, and, of course, Egoyan's wife Arsinée Khanjian to name a few) and a dream like surreal quality with flashbacks and efforts to uncover the truth. It even has strong performances by several of the cast particularly Firth, Bacon, and David Heyman.
There is, however, one major flaw in this film and that is the BAD miscasting of Alison Lohman as the lead character. Because her performance is so unbelievable the film falls apart. Her character is supposed to be that of a hard bitten reporter who while young has been around the block a few times. Her performance, though, is that if a young breathy ingénue who looks like she's no more than 12. She even overacts a bit which doesn't help the believability factor. The "Alice" scene was so over the top it was almost embarrassing to watch. When Firth says his lines about wanting to have something over her and how she would be seen as corrupting "Alice" if word ever got out about what happened I wanted to laugh. "Alice" looked the same age or even older than Lohman. The lines fall flat in the face of that fact.
Hopefully, Egoyan will think long and hard about the casting of his next film. That and have a little talk with the set and costume designer if he's doing a period piece. Picking up on the cheesiest aspects of '70's culture turned me off almost as much as Lohman's performance.
It contains a lot of the usual elements of an Egoyan film such as ubiquitous appearances by well known Canadian actors (ie Don McKellar, Garbrielle Rose, Maury Chaykin, Rachel Blanchard, and, of course, Egoyan's wife Arsinée Khanjian to name a few) and a dream like surreal quality with flashbacks and efforts to uncover the truth. It even has strong performances by several of the cast particularly Firth, Bacon, and David Heyman.
There is, however, one major flaw in this film and that is the BAD miscasting of Alison Lohman as the lead character. Because her performance is so unbelievable the film falls apart. Her character is supposed to be that of a hard bitten reporter who while young has been around the block a few times. Her performance, though, is that if a young breathy ingénue who looks like she's no more than 12. She even overacts a bit which doesn't help the believability factor. The "Alice" scene was so over the top it was almost embarrassing to watch. When Firth says his lines about wanting to have something over her and how she would be seen as corrupting "Alice" if word ever got out about what happened I wanted to laugh. "Alice" looked the same age or even older than Lohman. The lines fall flat in the face of that fact.
Hopefully, Egoyan will think long and hard about the casting of his next film. That and have a little talk with the set and costume designer if he's doing a period piece. Picking up on the cheesiest aspects of '70's culture turned me off almost as much as Lohman's performance.