I'm not more widely familiar with Atom Egoyan's work, but this small curiosity of a film has piqued my interest. It's about a photographer (played by Egoyan) who, while on a commission to photograph churches in Armenia for a calendar, develops a riff between his wife, and later has to live with himself when she leaves him for their driver. These two temporal locations, the Armenian trip and his empty house afterward, are pulled together by a twelve-part structure to reflect the calendar that was made. While in Armenia, he is always behind the camera, while in Canada, he is always on camera. In this way we see both how he looks and also who he is. In Armenia, the name of the game is miscommunication: he can't tell what his wife, who is the translator, is saying to their driver, and he can't express how he feels about the two of them obviously growing attached to each other in front of his eyes; in Canada, he goes on date after date that basically just show off what a pathetic tool he really is (though of course there's some question as to the staginess of the situation, as on the final date he says, "Okay, you can stop now," leaving a sort of ambiguousness as to whether they were legitimate dates or he is re-enacting some important scene in his relationship with his wife with other women). Either way, Egoyan's character comes across as a sadder, less quirky Woody Allen, a character that is risky to showcase because he can be incredibly unlikeable. The thing is, though, Egoyan builds him well enough that he's recognizable and real. It's easy to care for him, through all of his faults.
--PolarisDiB
--PolarisDiB