by MATTHEW HAYS

Lord knows, we all really wanted Canuck director Atom Egoyan to succeed with Ararat, his cinematic meditation on the Armenian genocide of the early 20th century. From the earliest announcement of its production, the film was steeped in controversy, in particular when the Turkish government announced its anger at the film being made without having even seen a script or synopsis.

And here’s a story that desperately needs to be told. Despite the rather large amount of evidence to suggest that a genocide of Armenians did indeed occur, the Turkish government denies any such a thing happened. Also steeped in controversy are the refusals of both the Israeli and American governments to officially recognize what happened to the Armenians as genocide. Simply put, Egoyan had all the ingredients for a fascinating, moving and revelatory film.

But Egoyan’s style has often been decidedly pomo, meaning any declaration of an essential truth is out of the question. All characters must have a different variation on the truth. Each person has their own story to tell, with each version, it’s suggested, containing at least some validity.

And that waters down whatever message Egoyan may have been trying to convey here. There are various swirling subplots, involving a film-within-a-film (being made about the genocide), with Charles Aznavour as the director and Bruce Greenwood as one of the actors. Then there’s Christopher Plummer as a contemporary customs official, who must attempt to get the truth out of one young member of the film crew as he re-enters the country. This last subplot is a particularly arduous bit of business that runs throughout the movie, dragging it down irreparably.

That Egoyan is a talented filmmaker goes without question. It’s hard to know precisely where or when he went so direly wrong with Ararat. The director has gotten so into intellectualizing rather than emotionally engaging his audience that he’s made a barren feature that will move no one. It’s a sad tribute to an even sadder untold story. :

Ararat opens Friday, Nov. 22

>> Movie Listings