For all the initial mysteriousness of virtually everyone’s actions, Atom Egoyan is never coy for the sake of being coy.

A central part of the movie's dreamlike ambience derives from the fact that the camera is in motion in practically every shot.

Atom Egoyan makes his most conventionally-satisfying film in Exotica. I don't mean that as a putdown: it's his best movie, too, though some of his early academic-theory fans may be put off at its accessibility.

The mood is relentless; the gears spark and grind quietly, but spectacularly... The essence... is damage, unexamined, and the pulse of trauma washing ashore.