Guest of Honour

Name: Guest of Honour
Genre: Drama
Released: July 10, 2020
Duration: 105 min
Rating: 53
Cast: Alexandre Bourgeois, Arsinée Khanjian, David Thewlis, Gage Munroe, John Bourgeois

2020

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Mixed or average reviews based on 13 Critic Reviews

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Guest Of Honour

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Movie Details & Credits

Kino Lorber | Release Date (Streaming): July 10, 2020 | Not Rated

Starring: Alexandre Bourgeois, Arsinée Khanjian, David Thewlis, Gage Munroe, John Bourgeois, Laysla De Oliveira, Luke Wilson, Rossif Sutherland, Sima Fisher, Sugith Varughese, Tamara Podemski, Tennille Read

Summary: Jim (David Thewlis) and his daughter Veronica (Laysla De Oliveira), a high school music teacher, attempt to unravel their complicated histories and intertwined secrets in the latest film from Atom Egoyan (The Sweet Hereafter), which weaves through time exploring perception and penance, memory and forgiveness. A hoax instigated by anJim (David Thewlis) and his daughter Veronica (Laysla De Oliveira), a high school music teacher, attempt to unravel their complicated histories and intertwined secrets in the latest film from Atom Egoyan (The Sweet Hereafter), which weaves through time exploring perception and penance, memory and forgiveness. A hoax instigated by an aggressive school bus driver (Rossif Sutherland) goes very wrong. Accused of abusing her position of authority with 17-year-old Clive (Alexandre Bourgeois) and another student, Veronica is imprisoned. Convinced that she deserves to be punished for crimes she committed at an earlier age, Veronica rebuffs her father’s attempts to secure her early release. Confused and frustrated by her intransigence, Jim's anguish begins to impinge on his job. As a food inspector, he wields great power over small, family-owned restaurants. It’s a power he doesn’t hesitate to use. While preparing Jim's funeral, Veronica confides the secrets of her past to Father Greg (Luke Wilson), who may hold the final piece of this father-daughter puzzle. [Kino Lorber]… Expand

Director: Atom Egoyan

Genre(s): Drama

Rating: Not Rated

Runtime: 105 min

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Critic Reviews

RogerEbert.com Glenn Kenny

Jul 10, 2020

Guest of Honour, a knotty memory play and character study that, not unsurprisingly, screened at last fall’s Toronto fest, is a gratifyingly solid work that benefits from first-rate performers and a knowing location nose for the scruffier corners of Hamilton, Ontario. Read full review

Kate Taylor

Sep 10, 2019

The restaurant story is wonderfully taut, with Egoyan in full control of his always extravagant imagery. Read full review

The Playlist Stephanie Watts

Sep 9, 2019

While the non-linear structure of Guest of Honour makes for a more thrilling watch than if it had played out chronologically, the story can be uneven and unsatisfying in places. Read full review

IndieWire David Ehrlich

Sep 9, 2019

A riveting but utterly ridiculous melodrama about the burden of guilt and the value of bunny shit, Atom Egoyan’s “Guest of Honour” layers one absurd turn on top of another with the confidence of a veteran architect, and yet — even at its most perversely entertaining — this very unpredictable movie only feels as if it’s working in spite of itself. Read full review

Mike D'Angelo

Jul 7, 2020

Every so often, Egoyan takes another stab at the offbeat, achronological, weirdly intimate mode in which he originally specialized, but the spark never quite fully ignites. Guest Of Honour, his latest effort, is decidedly that sort of low-wattage Egoyan classic, serving up familiar preoccupations and structural curlicues—minus any inspiration. Read full review

Movie Nation Roger Moore

Jun 29, 2020

That makes Guest of Honour more unsatisfying than bad, more polished than it could be in many ways, but sloppy in ones that count — namely the script. It’s a textbook case of a “fascinating failure.” Read full review

Lee Marshall

Sep 9, 2019

Egoyan is so impatient to cut through to the emotional truth that he asks us to take on board a series of lazy contrivances that will test even the most forgiving viewer. Read full review

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JLuis_001

Aug 15, 2020

If there's a merit that I can give to this convoluted and dull melodrama is that it's not predictable and although in other cases it would be something noticeable for surprising the viewer, in this case it is simply a narrative resource to which the director resorted to when he wrote hisIf there's a merit that I can give to this convoluted and dull melodrama is that it's not predictable and although in other cases it would be something noticeable for surprising the viewer, in this case it is simply a narrative resource to which the director resorted to when he wrote his script.

Guest of Honour, Atom Egoyan's latest film is certainly eye-catching because it looks good and is also well acted, but is so absurd that I personally found it difficult to connect with the story.

Depending on your patience and interest, you may find it more entertaining because the proposal wasn't that big of a deal and it's not that I think it's a bad film but I definitely didn't find it more engaging.… Expand

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