FREE ESSAY ON EXOTICA

EXOTICA

Demystifying Exotica
Let me ask you something gentlemen. What is it that gives a schoolgirl her special
innocence? Her sweet fragrance? Fresh flowers? Light spring rain? Or is it her firm young
flesh inviting your every caress, enticing you to explore the deepest, most private
secrets? 
Exotica is an Atom Egoyan film which received rave reviews at Cannes a few years back and
has been available on video. On the surface, Exotica could be considered one of your
typical sexploitation flicks that appeals to the lowest common denominator, the most
recent being Showgirls and Striptease. However, upon watching the film, the story of the
relationships between the characters is slowly unveiled and a commentary on the value of
relationships in the postmodern age is formed. Like the slow striptease of that Christina
performs on the stage of Club Exotica, revelations about the characters are shed for the
audience: Thomas' smuggling operation, the reason for Christina's loyalty to Francis, the
lesbian relationship between Zoe and Christina, the murder of Francis' daughter, and the
relationship between Eric and Christina. 
Don't you think you owe it to yourself to do something that'll make you feel like you're
someone special? You are someone special. Five dollars is all it takes to prove it.. 
The story revolves around the Club Exotica, a strip club in the middle of an industrial
wasteland in Toronto. There is Christina, the stripper who works there; Zoe, the pregnant
owner of the bar, and Eric, the DJ. Francis is a Revenue Canada auditor who frequents the
club, always asking for Christina, and they play a strange game where Francis relives the
memory of his murdered daughter. As the movie develops, he comes to know Thomas, the
owner of a pet store who also smuggles exotic animals. Eric becomes jealous of Francis'
fascination of Christina, and sets him up to be thrown out of the club. Francis then
coerces Thomas to go into the club and spy for him and help him shoot Eric. 
The Club Exotica embodies the social condition of postmodernism, a result of capitalism,
an existence where people have no emotional connection with others nor values. It is
about relationships that people have in an age where morality is irrelevant and such
relationships are bartered. An age where people concentrate on the transaction, and not
the substance of the relationship. People are classified as debtors or creditors, where
the exchange of goods is their only common link. This line of thinking is apparent in the
relationships between the characters of Exotica: the dancers at the Exotica dance for the
men for $5 a song. The club's owner, Zoe, and the D.J. Eric made a contract for Zoe's
baby. Christina, who was paid to baby-sit Francis' daughter when she was young, now is
paid to help Francis cope with the loss of his daughter. Francis also pays Tracey, a
teenage girl, to practice her piano in his empty house, another method that Francis uses
to keep the memory of his daughter alive. Thomas seeks the company of other gay men, with
the use of ballet tickets. Ian, a Canada Customs Inspector, himself 'bought' by Thomas at
the opera one night, takes illegally smuggled bird eggs from Thomas to guarantee that
they'll be able to meet again. Francis, who is auditing Thomas' books for Revenue Canada,
coerces Thomas to do a favour for him at the Exotica in exchange for 'not finding' the
illegal smuggling operation. As one can see, all the relationships share the same
underlying pathology, only the currency differs. None of these relationships have any
emotional connection-- no love, no hate. They are merely part of a process, a ritual that
is followed. The ritual of exchange is programmed into the minds of the characters that
it is what they expect-- a scene that reflects this would be Thomas insisting on paying
Christina, even after she told him that it was not necessary. In fact, the only
relationships in Exotica with emotional intensity have faded by the beginning of the
movie-- Francis' wife and daughter are both dead, and Eric and Christina are estranged
lovers, after having met many years prior, searching for the body of Francis' daughter. 
Do you ever feel like you need a friend? 
Yeah, sometimes. 
When? 
Right now. 
Why? 
Because I just met you... and I feel like telling someone. 
These relationships also serve to give the characters their sense of identity. Francis
imagines himself as the father figure, watching over his long-dead daughter, in his
dealings with Christina and Tracey. Eric relives his youth through his introductions of
Christina to the stage. 
He comes in here every other night. He has his favourite drink, at his favourite table,
with his favourite dancer. Sometimes he has to wait for her and sometimes she's waiting
for him. She'll protect him, she's his angel... 
Speaking of rituals, there is an emphasis on the rituals of these bartered relationships.
Thomas develops a ritual the first time he goes to the opera with the pair of opera
tickets from a man who shared a taxi with him. He learns of a way of finding someone to
sit beside him. He returns several more times, reinforcing this ritual and a nice
juxtaposition arises in the middle of the film. As Francis wanders into the club, looking
for Christina, Thomas is wandering at the opera house, looking for a male companion. They
both have something in exchange for the company of another person. Not only must one have
the currency for the transaction, but one must follow a prescribed protocol. When Francis
violates this protocol, by touching Christine on the stomach, he is thrown out of the
Club Exotica. There are many rituals which the characters use to give themselves identity
or to fill the empty space. They vary in extreme from the normal (small talk between
dancer and client, small talk between Eric and Christina in the field), to the truly
bizarre. To the casual observer, the more bizarre rituals may seem absurd, but to the
characters, these rituals are perfectly rationalized and help them deal with the pain of
their loneliness. Francis pays Tracey $20 and hour to practice her music at his empty
house to keep the memory of his daughter alive. Francis plays a role-playing game, with
Christina as the daughter that must be protected. Thomas shells out money for opera
tickets from scalpers to have someone to sit beside at the opera. Tracey's father is
disturbed by Francis' strange behaviour and the ritual in which his daughter is involved
in, but he pretends not to notice. 
You have to ask yourself what brought the person to this point. What was seen in his
face, his manner, that channeled him here. You have to convince yourself that this person
has something hidden that you have to find. You check his bags, but it's his face, his
gestures, that you are really watching... 
Finally, Exotica is about how people are shaped by the events around them and how their
outward behaviour is manipulated by the ghosts of their past. This is symbolized by the
2-way mirrors, both in the airport and the Club Exotica-- how people perceive the
emotional turmoil of others and deal with it subtlety. Francis speaks to Tracey about
'emotional baggage', and how it creates tension between people. He tells her that you can
either ignore it, not have friends, or acknowledge the emotional baggage and have friends
anyway. By the end of the movie, there is acknowledgment between Eric and Francis of each
others' 'emotional baggage' and relationship to Christina. 
Just because they're exotic doesn't mean they can't endure extremes. 
It is, after all, a jungle out there, isn't it? 
So that's my view on Exotica, possibly Atom Egoyan's best film to date. Quite a different
film from what my first impressions were. On the other hand, maybe I'm overanalyzing it
and it really is another Showgirls, but I doubt it.