The Adjuster

An insurance adjuster (Koteas) arrives at the scene of a fire and takes the burned-out owner-occupier in hand. 'You may not feel it,' he tells her, 'but you're in a state of shock'. Egoyan's characters are always at a remove from the world, emotionally numb, psychically dislocated. He's fascinated by parallax and discrepancy, the gap between image and reality. Noah - the adjuster - tries to help his clients reproduce their material effects so that the clients can be exactly as they were before. Scrupulously poring over photographs for clues, he places a value on everything; and part of the special relationship he establishes with his clients is having sex with them... The Adjuster might almost be the third instalment in a trilogy which began with Family Viewing and Speaking Parts. It's his richest, most expansive film to date, an engrossing, deadpan tragicomedy, evocatively shot in CinemaScope, with surprisingly affecting performances from Koteas and Chaykin in particular.