Guest of Honour movie review & film summary (2020)

Anyone who attended that Toronto festival in 2005 will remember an almost palpable “what the hell did I just see?” feeling that followed press screenings of “Where The Truth Lies,” Egoyan’s adaptation of a Rupert Holmes novel (don’t laugh) about showbiz sexual depredations in the 1950s. The strangely robotic performances, the on-the-nose dialogue, the nearly amateur-hour period trappings had me thinking “has this guy forgotten how to direct a film?” a question I have only ever asked concerning Dario Argento. 

Since then, in any event, critics have looked toward each new Egoyan picture with a combination of anticipation and trepidation, looking for what they call a “return to form.” “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.

After a few establishing shots, the significance of which will be fleshed out as the picture goes on, “Guest of Honour” opens proper with a convention begun perhaps by Preston Sturges, in his screenplay for 1933’s “The Power And the Glory,” that is, with two people talking about a dead man. They are Veronica, a composed and beautiful young woman, and Father Greg, a priest, played by Laysla De Oliveira and Luke Wilson respectfully. The dead man is Veronica’s dad, Jim.

Played by David Thewlis, Jim is a restaurant health and safety inspector who takes his job very seriously. He’s on duty even when he’s off duty, as we see when we first meet him, and he finds a hair in the rice he’s eating at a food court during his leisure time. He’s specific, strict, and very observant, but he’s not without compassion. As it happens, his compassion will backfire on him.  

Veronica tells Father Greg of the rabbit Jim got for her as a girl, a bunny she named Benjamin. Benjamin lived for quite some time, almost setting a record for bunny longevity, and Veronica recounts to Greg how kind her dad was to look after the bunny while she was in prison.