Friday, 11 October 2019

Guest of Honour


London Film Festival review #4



Atom Egoyan’s latest stars David Thewlis as a British ex-pat food inspector living in Canada and married to a Brazilian woman. His character is already deceased at the beginning of the movie. The flashback narrative sees him trying to find out why his music teacher daughter has allowed herself to serve an unnecessary prison sentence. 

Egoyan takes a lot of risks with his complex story and structure here, but for the most part it pays off, and the unexpected twists and turns of the plot make for an enjoyable journey.  A great tragi-comic performance by Thewlis is one of the main reasons to watch this film, but there are incidental pleasures throughout, especially in the often surreal vignettes of Thewlis going about his job inspecting a variety of weird but seldom wonderful restaurants. In support, Luke Wilson does well as a hip priest, as does newcomer Laysla De Oliveira as the daughter. The film looks and sounds great too. 

By turns funny, moving and strange, like his earlier offerings, The Adjuster and ExoticaGuest of Honour is a one-of-a-kind movie only Egoyan could have made, and also one of his very best.  

No comments:

Post a Comment