Film Review: Exotica

EXOTICA (Atom Egoyan, 1994)

The table dancer in Exotica

One character is a table dancer. Another is a habitué of the strip club called Exotica who is fixated to watch the table dancer perform her act - a dangerous way to heal his grief over loss of her murdered daughter. Another character is into smuggling exotic birds and, who, in his spare time, cruises for exotic one-night-stands. Another character who is being been paid $20 an hour to baby-sit eventually quits because “there’s no baby to sit.” And then, there’s a jealous DJ and a pregnant strip-club owner. Put all these characters together in a film, make them interact, and the result is one great film called Exotica. Some characters are subtly enigmatic despite the film’s effective portraiture of grief, healing, blackmail, loss, jealousy, and compromise engulfing them. Transactions seem to be the central theme of the film. And things that are not common in our everyday experience can seem to be what the film suggests to be ‘exotic.”

The pet shop operator in Exotica

I just finished watching the film for the second time a few hours before now that I’m writing this.  It was around 1995 when I first saw it. I remember liking the film because of the unconventional story-telling technique Atom Egoyan, the film’s director, had applied in the film. But, aside from that, I seemed to have had completely forgotten important details of the film. When I was watching it again a few hours ago, it was like watching it for the first time. It was in a commercial theater where I watched it in 1995. This time, it was on DVD, so I could replay scenes if I thought I missed some important points and dialogs. And having watched it for the second time, on DVD, I discovered details which, I think, have made me feel the film to be a lot better this time. It’s painful to watch the film, but the important thing is the pleasure of having just watched (again) a truly good film.

Rating: 4.0/4.0