Film Review – Seven Veils

Writer/director Atom Egoyan almost treats “Seven Veils” like a happy accident. The feature was created while Egoyan mounted a stage revival of the opera “Salome,” inspired by the restrictions he faced during his creative process, triggering a need to explore what he previously couldn’t on stage. It’s an unusual point of departure for the script, but Egoyan is an unusual guy, and while his filmography is littered with ambitious offerings of mediocrity, especially in recent years, he returns to a semi-alert state in his latest, which covers a range of topics and spaces of psychological distress. “Seven Veils” comes withing striking distance of becoming a mystery, following a director’s efforts to oversee a new production of “Salome” while inspecting all of the emotional baggage, which returns to view during the rehearsal process. Egoyan creates a mood for the endeavor, and his pursuit of behavior is fascinating to watch at times, infusing the film with a few surprises as it balances the process of making art and the development of manipulation that’s often paired with creativity. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com