Seven Veils

by Mike McGranaghan

If you had shown me Seven Veils without any credits or any prior knowledge on my part, I would have been able to identify it as an Atom Egoyan film. It’s got all the trademarks of the Canadian director’s work, from the themes of obsession and alienation to the intense focus on character nuance. (The only thing it’s missing is Sarah Polley.) There’s something heartening about the fact that, thirty years after his breakthrough Exotica, Egoyan hasn’t lost his touch for making intelligent motion pictures for discerning adults.

Jeanine (Amanda Seyfried) has been brought on to remount a production of Salome that was first staged by her late mentor. She wants to make a few minor-but-meaningful changes, a choice that rankles feathers within the theater ranks. That’s the set-up. As the story evolves, we learn that an event from Jeanine’s past influenced a scene in the original version, leaving her displeased as to how it was presented.

Running concurrent to this are arcs about her separation from her husband (who is fooling around with her aging mother’s caretaker), her attraction to a male understudy, and a prop maker named Clea (Rebecca Liddiard) whose encounter with the play’s male lead creates an additional problem to be dealt with.

Typically, Egoyan doesn’t march you through events in a logical A-B-C manner. Seven Veils bounces around between these varied elements, creating a layer-by-layer portrait of the psychological anguish Jeanine is hoping to extinguish via this classic work. And if you guessed her story has parallels to Salome, you are absolutely correct. To his credit, Egoyan avoids being too obvious on that count, which gives the connections even more meaning. The film plays almost like a mystery that leaves you hungry for each new piece of the puzzle regarding the character’s motivations.

Amanda Seyfried is excellent in the lead role. She gives a very lived-in, authentic performance. Many of her best scenes are the ones where Jeanine is giving direction to the actors. Seyfried invests those moments with emotional undercurrents that tell us a lot about the character’s mindset. Rebecca Liddiard is also good. Clea has her own issues going on that parallel Jeanine’s in unexpected ways. The actress keeps us guessing as to where the bottom line is for the prop maker.

Seven Veils isn’t Egoyan’s best film – for my money, that’s still The Sweet Hereafter - but it’s still a must-see for his admirers. Driven by Seyfried’s dynamic turn, the movie gets increasingly under your skin with each new revelation. The staging of Salome is pretty cool, too.

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