“I’ve been asked to make this personal…so I will.”
Reading up on Seven Veils, I found out that the reason behind writer/director Atom Egoyan’s latest film was due to an offer he received some time back to revive the classic play Salome for the stage. Understandably, the director found such a task daunting and refused. Still, he couldn’t help but wonder what such an undertaking would do to a creative were they to say yes. The amount of creative energy and the toll on their psyche were notions that fascinated Egoyan to the point where he had no choice but to explore them. The experience was a perfectly organic jumping-off point for any story to be birthed from, driven by curiosity and inspiration. Simply put, it’s the kind of stuff great films are made of. The question that remains, however, is: Is Seven Veils a great film?
In Seven Veils, theater director Jeanine (Amanda Seyfried) is asked to mount a new production of the opera version of the classic Salome as a tribute to her late mentor. However, when challenges start to present themselves in the form of a difficult leading man (Michael Kupfer-Radecky), a troubled home life, and dark recollections from the past, Jeanine starts to question her sanity.
From Opening Night to All That Jazz to Black Swan, the theater space has continually proven to be the perfect backdrop for madness to take place. It’s no wonder then that from the offset, the world Jeanine inhabits doesn’t feel right. As a director, she keeps coming up against roadblocks thanks to her temperamental lead actor and producers not wanting her to make any changes to the piece, even though she says the ones she intends to make would be small, yet meaningful. Seven Veils credibly portrays the creative process of a director tasked with reinterpreting a famous work and how they try hard to put that aside so that their own artistic sensibilities can exist. The rehearsal scenes with an unwavering Jeanine trying hard to express her vision all feel real and invigorating to watch. Additionally, the narration from her character matches the haunted quality of the film. It’s a device that works since she is, after all, haunted by her past with both her mentor, Charles, and her father. There’s always a haunting quality about theaters and the ghosts of both performers and characters that have existed there never having left. For Jeanine, this is certainly true.
While Seven Veils shows Egoyan in top form, some aspects of the film feel a little stilted. The lack of subtlety when it comes to certain plot points does come off as a tad amateurish for a filmmaker of Egoyan’s pedigree. Likewise, much of the film’s more telling moments don’t seem to have much room with which to breathe, making the storytelling come off as somewhat jumbled and rushed. There’s a finesse that’s noticeably absent early on when it comes to making the narrative feel cohesive and the film does feel like it starts to lose steam the moment it starts venturing into Jeanine’s home life, despite this being such a vital part of her journey. Egoyan manages to rebound in the second half, however and can make a classic premise feel intense and relevant. A subplot with prop master Clea (Rebecca Dilliard) feels like a distraction that the film doesn’t need, at first. Eventually, though, the way it mirrors parts of Jeanine’s past becomes one of the film’s most telling aspects. Finally, seeing how a lot of the roadblocks Jeanine is facing seem to trace back to the fact that a woman is directing a text written by a man and historically interpreted by men cannot be ignored.
Seven Veils offers Seyfried’s most complex and layered performance to date. The actress is surrounded by an assortment of talented actors, such as Kupfer-Radecky, Dilliard, and Mark O’Brien as Jeanine’s estranged husband. However Seyfried remains the centerpiece. The actress has never been fully appreciated for how much of an internal actress she is. Here, she conveys so much with only looks, glances, and a very specific physicality. There’s something quietly intoxicating about the way Seyfried takes Jeanine to more intense levels from her diary entries, to rehearsals, to her recalling of the past she shared with Charles. With so much to work with and many places to take her, the role of Jeanine is just the right fit for Seyfried at this exciting stage in her career.
For those who may be unaware or don’t remember, Seven Veils represents a reunion between Seyfried and Egoyan, who last collaborated back in 2009 on the erotic thriller Chloe. At the time of that pairing, the director was still trying to not let his Oscar-nominated film The Great Hereafter define him while she was still looking to go beyond the comedic image set forth by the popularity of Mean Girls. Since then the two have amassed bodies of work which have seen them venture to places both dark and daring. Egoyan’s 2016 film, Remember, was a harrowing experience, while Seyfried gave herself to the powers of transformation in projects like Mank and The Dropout. Their work together on Seven Veils shows the fruits of their respective journeys as artists and proves inspiring enough to make us hope that there’s yet another collaboration in the future.
