The Adjuster (1991)

User Rating:

6.8/10   

Director:

Atom Egoyan

Writer:

Atom Egoyan (writer)

Release Date:

July 1992 (USA)

Genre:

Drama

Tagline:

In search of relative comfort...

Plot:

A reflection about what makes everyone's life unique, through the story of Noah's family. Noah is an adjuster...

Plot Keywords:

Cult Favorite | Insurance | Tragedy | Voyeurism | Adultery

Awards:

5 wins & 2 nominations

Cast

Elias Koteas	...	Noah
Arsinée Khanjian	...	Hera
Maury Chaykin	...	Bubba
Gabrielle Rose	...	Mimi
Jennifer Dale	...	Arianne
David Hemblen	...	Bert - The Head Censor
Rose Sarkisyan	...	Seta - Hera's Sister
Armen Kokorian	...	Simon - Hera's Child
Jacqueline Samuda	...	Louise - The Maid
Gerard Parkes	...	Tim
Patricia Collins	...	Lorraine
Don McKellar	...	Tyler - The Young Censor
John Gilbert	...	The Doctor
Stephen Ouimette	...	Larry - The Butterfly Collector
Raoul Trujillo	...	Matthew - His Lover
Tony Nardi	...	The Motel Manager
Paul Bettis	...	The Wild Man of the Billboards
Frank Jefferson	...	Simon as a Baby

Directed by
Atom Egoyan

Writing credits
Atom Egoyan		(writer)

Produced by
Camelia Frieberg	....	co-producer
David J. Webb	....	associate producer (as David Webb)

Original Music by
Mychael Danna

Cinematography by
Paul Sarossy		(director of photography)

Film Editing by
Susan Shipton

Production Design by
Linda Del Rosario
Richard Paris

Set Decoration by
Linda Del Rosario
Richard Paris

Costume Design by
Maya Mani

Makeup Department
Nicole Demers	....	makeup artist
Maxine Rennes-Gunderson	....	hair designer (as Maxine Rennes)

Production Management
Sandra Cunningham	....	assistant production manager
Camelia Frieberg	....	production manager
Stephen J. Turnbull	....	unit manager

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Cynthia Gillespie	....	second assistant director
Ingrid Veninger	....	assistant director
David J. Webb	....	first assistant director (as David Webb)

Art Department
Alexa Anthony	....	buyer
Ana Auml	....	billboard painter
Elizabeth Bailey	....	billboard painter
Elizabeth Bailey	....	muralist
Steven 'Sparky' Carr	....	assistant set dresser (as Steve 'Sparky' Carr)
Kathleen Climie	....	assistant art director
James Feige	....	art department assistant
Fred Fitzpatrick	....	billboard painter
Fred Fitzpatrick	....	scenic painter
Chris Minz	....	billboard painter
John Mokedanz	....	art department assistant
Geoff Murrin	....	props
Jim Murrin	....	props
Michael Rouse	....	art department assistant
Mark Schulson	....	assistant set dresser
Ian Taylor	....	art department assistant

Sound Department
Michael Bickel	....	assistant sound editor
Sue Conley	....	dialogue editor
Paul Germann	....	trainee sound editor
Richard Harkness	....	trainee sound editor (as Rich Harkness)
Peter Kelly	....	sound re-recording mixer: Film House
Sid Lieberman	....	foley artist
Peter Melnychuk	....	boom operator
Steve Munro	....	sound designer (as Steven Munro)
George Novotny	....	foley recordist
Daniel Pellerin	....	sound re-recording mixer
Ross Redfern	....	sound recordist
Velcrow Ripper	....	assistant sound editor
E. Jane Thompson	....	assistant sound editor (as Jane Thompson)
Michael Werth	....	adr editor
Paul Weston	....	boom operator

Special Effects by
Ron Craig	....	special effects assistant
Sam McIntyre	....	special effects assistant
Stan Zuwala	....	special effects assistant
Neil Trifunovich	....	special effects supervisor (uncredited)

Camera and Electrical Department
Kaloust Babian	....	still photographer: photographs of Beirut
Cynthia Barlow	....	key grip
Paul Boucher	....	second assistant camera
Johnnie Eisen	....	still photographer
Greg Farrow	....	assistant camera: second unit
John Freeman	....	camera trainee
George Kerr	....	third electrician
Roscoe Kerr	....	best boy
Byron McCulloch	....	second grip
Michael Melnechenko	....	third grip
David Owen	....	gaffer
David Plank	....	assistant camera
Mark Willis	....	camera operator: second unit

Casting Department
Scott Mansfield	....	extras casting

Costume and Wardrobe Department
Jill Aslin	....	wardrobe mistress
Cori Burchell	....	seamstress
Laurie Munday	....	wardrobe assistant

Editorial Department
Charlotte Disher	....	assistant editor
Atom Egoyan	....	additional editor
Chris Hinton	....	color timer
Bruce Organ	....	second assistant editor

Music Department
Eve Egoyan	....	musician: piano
Mark Fewer	....	musician: violin

Transportation Department
Stephen Payne	....	driver
Stephen J. Turnbull	....	transportation (as Stephen Turnbull)

Other crew
John P. Allen	....	fiddle
Allen Bell	....	script editor
Richard Craven	....	location manager
Ron Dann	....	steel guitar
Lori Dunn	....	production assistant
Atom Egoyan	....	classical guitar
Charlotte Engel	....	production secretary
Monika Gagnon	....	continuity
Monika Gagnon	....	script supervisor
Jivan Gasparyan	....	duduk sample
Shirley Granger	....	production accountant
Karen Hawes	....	assistant location manager
John Hopkins	....	director observer
Mark Jackson	....	production assistant
Allen Khan	....	production assistant
Martyn Krys	....	production lawyer
Jordan Merkur	....	production assistant
Andrew Munger	....	location assistant
Kim Nelson	....	production assistant
Roberta Pazdro	....	production coordinator
Om Taka Taka	....	caterer
Greg Van Alstyne	....	title graphic design
Meredyth Young	....	craft service

Production Companies

• Alliance Entertainment
• Ego Film Arts
• The Ontario Film Development Corporation
• Téléfilm Canada

Distributors

• Orion Classics (1992) (USA) (theatrical)
• Orion Home Video (1992) (USA) (VHS)
• Alta Films (Spain)
• Films sans Frontières (France) (theatrical)

Special Effects

• Northern Effects

Other Companies

• Eureka  location management
• Film Opticals  title opticals
• Francont Film  negative cutting

Also Known As:

L'expert en sinistres (Canada: French title)
Den gode mannen (Sweden) [sv]
Der Schätzer (Germany) [de]
El liquidador (Spain) [es]
El taxador (Spain: Catalan title) [ca]
Il perito (Italy) [it]
O asfalistis (Greece) (TV title) [el]
The Adjuster (Greece) [el]

Runtime:

102 min

Country:

Canada

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Certification:

New Zealand:R18 | Hong Kong:III | Australia:R | Germany:16 | Spain:18 | Sweden:15 | UK:18 | USA:R

Filming Locations:

Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Company:

Alliance Entertainment

Quotes:

Hera: When I say something which deserves consideration and you respond without thinking, how do you feel?
Noah: I feel fine.
Hera: I thought you might feel stupid.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Chacun son cinéma ou Ce petit coup au coeur quand la lumière s'éteint et que le film commence (2007)

Soundtrack:

Armenian Folk and Dance Ensemble

A mysterious and hysterically dark tale of modernity

To respond to a previous review that wrote that the fact that the censor wife tapes porn from work to show her sister since they share everything together isn't convincing---in the film the wife explains to her boss that she shared what she learned from school to her sister because she couldn't go to school, and that it is like that from where they're from. Egoyan didn't specify where they were from, but it is Armenia. The way I see it, I am convinced because it is a matter of culture and family in a more depraved country, and I got it immediately, and the fact isn't that the sisters' bond is strange, but like the wife said, it is like that where she comes from. To me, the movie is an extreme dramatization of a man too involved in his work, which in the end destroys his life and family in a climate of heightened modernity and an inevitable air of danger. In one of the film's most gruesome scenes, a man is masturbating outside the glass slide doors of the living room at night while the wife's sister is watching one of the taped porn movies. In another scene, the "filmmaker" greets the family and gives them each an identical jacket, designed like tacky franchises sold in amusement parks. There's a certain vulnerability about the way the family members take the jacket, as if the scene is trying to express an awkward sorrow about mass franchise and how it's crudely threw at people and families. What I found very, very amused and surprised by is how throughout the film I expected, in the end, the obscene couple to be exposed to the family then shame and explanation could to be provided as punishment for their deceit and nightmarish violation---but when the husband finally confronts the "filmmaker" while he is about to burn down his living room, he is shown as simply, understandably, INSANE.

Their are certain unnecessary or unsubtle little spots of ambiguity in the film such as the wife's prior, semi-romantic encounter with her foot specialist on the subway, but then again, such details and the film's insistence in unpurifying EVERY relationship the adjuster has with his clients has its own reasons and means of defining and exposing the main characters that enhances the environment of robbed values the film so determinedly tries to create. Atom Egoyan stands out as a filmmaker of "ideas", and in this film as well as most of his images/pace/style express a lyrical modernity through a rich and mysterious vision. He is the most interesting provocateur.