The Adjuster

 

 

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Surreal as it may "The Adjuster" is still streaks and bounds ahead of most other sexual dramas. The story basically revolves around an insurance claims advisor (Elias Koteas) who helps people come to terms with the lose of their homes and possessions to some form of accident. He wife Hera (Arsinee Khanjian) works as a film censor who secretly films the pornography that she is viewing. There are various other characters who come into contact with the pair and sexual fantasies are the main theme that drives the story forward.

In many ways it is hard to describe without actually seeing it. There is very little plot but the movie does have some very memorable characters and it does have a good climax. It is sort of like a tone-downed version of a David Lynch movie and film director Atom Egoyan does wonders with the cinematography. The film looks visually wonderful and is very pleasing to the eye.

All in all this is a great drama but do not try and find too much of a plot here. It is more about the characters and their sexual dysfunctions. Some very memorable scenes throughout.

Well worth seeing.

Of all of the early Egoyan's this is the one most like Sweet Hereafter as both are centered around a character whose job it is to assist victims of a tragedy but it doesn't hit as many notes as Sweet Herafter in fact mostly its just dark and occasionally darkly comic. Perhaps too dark in places and in other places just too bizarre to be taken seriously. I like Egoyans cast of actors many of whom appear over and over again in his films. Egoyan is sort of like Altman in his use of tangled narratives and ensemble casts but unlike Altman he doesn't give us much variety. Everyone in the Adjuster is wounded beyond repair and after awhile one longs for at least one character who is not emotionally crippled but its a vain hope. Sweet Herafter had its share of bizarre characters and moments but many of those characters had moments of self realization and found their way toward some form of redemption and though the film focused on human vulnerability and weaknesses and imperfections the film also offered glimpses of human strengths and will and capacity to endure. The Adjuster focuses on the weaknesses and imperfections exclusively. The Adjuster himself played by Elias Koteas is a complex character who has collected the victims of various tragedies around him. Its his job to help these vitims collect on their insurance claims but his interest in the job has him doing more than that. Apparently others tragedies arouse him in some way and he ends up sleeping with many of the people he is supposed to be helping. No one seems to notice what hes doing, in fact all the victims inexplicably see him as some kind of angel there to help them through their suffering(perhaps they see him in this light because they need something to give them strength)but of course the Adjuster is no angel. Since most of the victims have been burned out of their homes they all live in the same hotel and this makes for one of the more inspired dark comic scenarios in memory. A few of the characters are interesting but some of the story lines are so outrageous that they dwarf everything else in the movie. At points the film feels like overkill. For instance the adjuster's wife is a censor who watches porn flicks all day and then along with other censors casts her vote as to which bits need censoring. However she actually really enjoys watching the stuff and shes strikingly beautiful so its not a scenario without considerable appeal. But the scenario gets out of hand when Egoyan makes the censors offices (as well as the people working there) look and act like something out of Kafka or Orwell. Egoyan seems to be trying too hard to be clever and so the point he is making about humans fascination with forbidden or dark subjects gets lost or misplaced. And then the nymphomaniac/exhibitionist seemed like a character from a very adult version of Saturday Night Live. The ending of the film reveals how Elias Koteas met his wife but reveals very little as to why Elias Koteas is so turned on by the victims that seek his services. Tragedies induce strange maladies is all we know. Koteas deserves credit for finding something human in his character. The film itself seems to be a study of the various ways we become dehumanized but the study seems superficial. Unlike Sweet Hereafter the film never digs deep enough into its characters to give us a chance at knowing them as sufferers of one bizarre affliction or another. Koteas does an excellent acting job with what hes given but even he seems a frustratingly incomplete sketch.

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