Adoration

Adoration attempts to draw interest with a group of disparate characters who soon connect in various ways. Thematically the film wants to deal with issues like how teenagers react to memories of deceased parents in a post-9/11 world. There's a preachy vibe that never overwhelms the story but is there nonetheless.
As much as I like films by Atom Egoyan the ennui inducing Adoration ranks as one of his least interesting films. It's like someone was trying to copy the Egoyan of Exotica or Sweet Hereafter and not having much luck.
Adoration will be of interest for completists who want to see everything done by normally interesting actors like Scott Speedman or Arsinée Khanjian. She's Egoyan's real-life spouse and Speedman only seems to get serious roles in native Canadian films like this one or My Life WIthout Me (otherwise he appears in American films like Underworld). Adoration overflows with characterizations that would be compelling in literature but on film feel like a carbon copy of life.
There's the tow truck driver who devotes his life to raising his nephew when his sister dies in a car accident. The youngster uses his parents death as a fictional starting point to write a story about them really dying in a terrorist situation. This raises the ire of his school and results in the termination of the teacher who not only encouraged the story but unbeknownst to everyone else was formally married to the dead husband. Then there's a cab driver who doesn't actually have a big role but does threaten to throw up in a restaurant and manages to steal some of the lead actor's glory. Later in the movie when the fired teacher jokes about throwing up you almost wish she would just to propel the movie into a confrontational level it lacks.
Production values are slick, especially several tracking shots on a highway that involve the cab and the tow truck. Adoration keeps threatening to become a film with a payoff but that never transpires.