Adoration

Simon is a young orphan being raised under the care of his uncle Tom. The early scenes of the film show him filming his conversation in the hospital with his dying grandfather. Through the eyes of Simon we see the grandfather as a caring, wise man, while through the perspective of his uncle we see the racist, backwards side. Simon's grandfather hated Simon's father and claims that he intended to kill Simon's mother in the car crash when, as Simon finds out at the film's conclusion, he had an eye condition. This condition prevented him from being able to drive at night, as the glare from oncoming headlights would blind him. The evening of the car crash reveals a different side of the story, causing the memories of each character to meet head on, connecting disparate stories of each character to unite in an Egoyanesque conclusion. Simon's family narrative is cleverly knit into a news story presented to Simon by his high school French teacher as a translation exercise. An article is read by the teacher about an attempted bombing of an aircraft by a man who put explosives in his pregnant wife's luggage. Simon gets the idea to translate the story and write it from the perspective of the child in the woman's womb. The teacher encourages Simon to develop his story as a drama exercise, however Simon presents it to the class and to the world via the Internet as if he really was that child. The teacher's silence, as we find out later, is owing to her relationship with Simon's late father who died, with his mother, in a car crash when he was still a child. The narrative of the car crash and the attempted bombing of the plane become intertwined as a way for the characters to deal with their past experiences, which they have all been trying to deny. The film is about a search for identity in a digital age where the truth is oftentimes irrelevant. Simon's story of his suicide bomber father is met on the Internet with sympathy, anger, and even support as we see a skinhead on webcam telling Simon that his father was a hero. The alienation experienced by Simon in relation to the world-wide response he receives to this made-up story ultimately serves as a mechanism that forces him to turn away from his computer and video screen to face the actual issues he experienced as a child. Simon's story takes a twist that involves all the other characters in his life, everyone's narrative culminating in the piecing together of a fragmented past that needed to be re-examined in order for those in the present to be healed and re-connect with the people in their lives.