Review of Exotica (1994) by Prateek G — 15 Mar 2010

Exotica is a story about some disparate people whose lives are interconnected through a common source . i.e. the strip club EXOTICA .. Mind you, this is not some cheap strip club which just caters to the needs of testosterone charged men, rather its a place for special people with special needs as implied by the club owner Zoe (Arsinee). What those special needs are - well mainly - desperation.

The story concerns three major characters. Francis (Bruce Greenwood)- a mournful auditor , Christina (Mia Kirshner) - A dancer in Exotica and Eric(Elias Koteas) - the DJ at club. Christina dances in a school girl's costume in the club. Francis is her regular customer. He spends lots of money for Christina to dance privately for him, but he's not interested in Christina for her sex quotient. Eric, is the club DJ and ex lover of Christina. He is jealous of other men watching Christina dance for them. He also has contractual agreement to impregnate Zoe (the club owner).

There are other characters too who are not the protagonists in this movie you can say, but their characters coincide with these people's lives and reveal some complicated secrets. There is Tracey (Sarah Polley, 15 yrs old), who is asked by Francis to baby-sit his daughter while he visits the club. There is Thomas (Don Mckellar), who is the owener of an exotic pet store and a smuggler of rare pets. Francis is auditing him. PHEW!!!

If you look at the plot of the movie, there is nothing mysterious in it. The story is simple, but its the presentation that elevates it to astronomical heights. The story is almost always presented in a circular manner with lots n lots of flashbacks used to reveal the mysteries behind these troubled characters. You don't get annoyed, rather you start to enjoy these flashbacks so much as the time progresses, because these repetitive flashbacks of the same situation always bring something new and interesting with them which helps in understanding the characters better. Lots of strange characters in the film and yet they are interconnected in such a way that by the time the truth is revealed, your perception will change about each n every character no matter how you perceived them at the start.

Of the performances, Bruce Greenwood is excellent. Arsinee Khanjian is lovable. She doesn't seem lonely, but she is one of the loneliest characters in the movie. But for me, Mia Kirshner's performance stood out. She is beautiful, seductive, painful performer yet courageous and gets your attention from the moment she steps in. The music is awesome.

"" This is film which RESPECTS the human nature in every possible way."" Probably the best thing to describe this was the ending, as nothing is solved at the end. Every character is doing what he / she was doing earlier. Its the audience whose views have changed as they start looking at the characters with greater respect and emotions.

I'm a sucker for the films which focus on extreme sides of human nature, and this film really made my day. All I can say at the end is that this is just hypnotic storytelling and that too at its very best. This is truly Atom Egoyan's masterpiece.