Venice Film Festival 2019: GUEST OF HONOUR

Guest of Honour is the latest feature film from infamous director Atom Egoyan, a director who has more often than not disappointed with his output of work, aside from a few highlights, since his debut film Next of Kin in 1984. His last feature, Auschwitz survivor thriller Remember, starring Christopher Plummer, and Martin Landau, garnered relatively positive reviews on release in 2015. 

Four years later and audiences are treated to Guest of Honour. It’s a family drama starring David Thewlis and Laysla de Oliveira as father and daughter Jim and Veronica. After Veronica is caught in a position of abusing her power as a school music teacher, she is sent to prison and wastes away in self-inflicted turmoil. Meanwhile Jim’s life slowly but surely blurs into orchestrated chaos that spills from his private life into his everyday life with consequences. 

A Pressure Cooker of Pain and Suffering

Atom Egoyan’s film is a strange one. Not due to its context or subject matter, which are ironically its most restraining factors, but more due to the screenplay and structure. There is a significant amount of turmoil and emotional instigation within the narrative here to craft something intimate and a pressure cooker of pain and atmosphere, but Egoyan’s film ultimately falls flat with how it instigates the contextual problems that arise and how the film explores said themes.

The most significant issue present in Guest of Honour is that there is much screen-time given to explore development and plotting of subplots that do not necessarily help or develop the overall film. It feels like it is procrastinating on arriving to its climax, which it ultimately skirts around. It is an issue that not only feels underwhelming but the thematic weight it wants to evoke is not quite as rich or engaging as it should be. It leaves you with an empty feeling of unfulfilled drama that does not even begin to touch upon what it sets out to discuss.

The pacing dampens the plot even further, as it’s often excruciatingly obstructive and then perfectly streamlined. There is no middle ground in which the film can settle.

Quite a Turn from Actress Laysla De Oliveira

The structure and edit implemented by editor Susan Shipton does not quite work as effectively as it should. The film deals its hand quite early on in the film, ceasing tension and pressure. The audience is left waiting for a resolve for two-thirds of the film, and when it arrives, it does so in the flattest sense of the word imaginable.

Thankfully, it is the performances that keep Guest of Honour from dropping to the depths of disaster. David Thewlis, retaining his northern English accent, brings his A-game and his peculiar energy to the role. He gives the character noticeable quirky features that serves to draw you into an otherwise flat character. If Thewlis has the more subtly comedic performance, his co-star and on-screen daughter Laysla De Oliveira has the tougher material to work with. De Oliviera delivers a compelling performance with her complex and internally conflicted character, covering a wide array of emotions.

Guest of Honor: Conclusion

Guest of Honour ultimately feels like a missed opportunity for both an intriguing character study on grief, and a compelling drama. Aside from the glowing performance from Laysla De Oliveira who steals the show with a superbly crafted performance that covers a staggering amount of inner turmoil, there is not a great deal of energy to the film, causing the film to lose impact and fails to stir emotional response.  The screenplay gives away too much far too early, and what remains is a slow, fumbled feature. 

What are your thoughts on Guest of Honour? Let us know in the comments below!

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