Adoration
Sony Pictures Classics | Release Date: May 8, 2009 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
64
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 20 Critic Reviews
Positive:
12
Mixed:
8
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
90
The New York TimesStephen Holden
A profound and provocative exploration of cultural inheritance, communications technology and the roots and morality of terrorism, the Canadian filmmaker Atom Egoyan nimbly wades into an ideological minefield without detonating an explosion. Read full review
88
USA TodayClaudia Puig
Moody, provocative and intellectually ambitious, Adoration is primed to elicit impassioned discussion among audiences. Read full review
83
The A.V. ClubScott Tobias
At a minimum, his new film, Adoration, marks a welcome return to the Egoyan of old, the one who could spin seductive mysteries out of disassembled parts and show how images can be manipulated into comforting lies. Read full review
80
The Hollywood ReporterRay Bennett
Shot on beautifully utilized film but employing images vividly from the Internet and mobile phones, it's an examination of the power that false ideas may have on people's imagination and beliefs when they are repeated over and over. Read full review
75
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Liam Lacey
Though there are moments when the drama turns into intellectual debate, the film is also emotional, moving with a fluid, mounting tension and moments of anguish and strange, startling humour. Read full review
75
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
Some viewers may find the film confusing; I found it absorbing. Read full review
75
Philadelphia InquirerCarrie Rickey
Adoration, Egoyan's most affecting film since "The Sweet Hereafter." Read full review
70
VarietyJustin Chang
This ambitious think-piece ultimately smothers its good intentions in didactic revelations, earnest pleading and incessant violin music. Engrossing nonetheless, the story of a high schooler troubled by his parents' legacy reps one of the Canadian writer-director's most accessible efforts. Read full review
70
Chicago ReaderJ.R. Jones
Scott Speedman gives a piercing, intelligent performance. Read full review
67
Austin ChronicleMarjorie Baumgarten
Egoyan’s return to form is welcome, nevertheless Adoration adds up to less than we might have hoped for Read full review
63
New York PostLou Lumenick
Adoration, which hinges on a number of coincidences, contains some really fine performances. Read full review
63
Boston GlobeTy Burr
Watching Adoration is like juggling three tennis balls, a porcupine, and a graduate thesis, but eventually it finds a unifying theme, that of tolerance melting away racial and intergenerational hatreds. Read full review
60
Village VoiceScott Foundas
The end result is a movie considerably more absorbing to talk, write, and think about afterward than it is to actually watch. Read full review
58
Portland OregonianMarc Mohan
Once all the pieces of the story are assembled, the whole thing turns out to be not that big of a deal. Read full review
50
Entertainment WeeklyOwen Gleiberman
The upshot is that those who appear to be guilty may not be -- a muddled message for our time. Read full review
50
Los Angeles TimesBetsy Sharkey
There is always a risk with having such a singular focus on a single theme; you might wake up to find the walls of that favored niche are closing in on you. And that is where we find Egoyan in Adoration. Read full review
50
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalle
Adoration, despite a family resemblance to some of his finest work ("The Sweet Hereafter," "Ararat"), is Egoyan at his worst. The movie is slow and airless, with a script so weak one wonders why Egoyan bothered to film it. Read full review
50
Washington PostDan Zak
The complex story structure teeters between the revelatory and the absurd, depending on how much you buy the irritating-then-intriguing performance by Arsine Khanjian (Egoyan's wife, the Armenian-Canadian actor). Read full review
50
Miami HeraldRene Rodriguez
After a promising start, this ambitious but ultimately clunky and unwieldy movie dissolves into a pile of ideas in dire need of dramatization. Read full review
40
EmpireAlan Morrison
Despite strong turns, it feels little more than an Egoyan lecture on Serious Stuff; lots to talk about, little to enjoy. Read full review
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