“Seven Veils” spends most of its runtime slowly but surely building tension, as Jeanine’s psyche struggles under not only the weight of expectations, but the pressure of the expectations of her father, who has passed away. It’s the role of her father that impacts her direction and life more than she could have ever imagined, and it’s this pressure that manifests in occasionally nerve-shredding tension. With the intensity ratcheting upwards, it feels like something major is coming — a twist or revelation that will send everything careening into utter madness. But just as “Seven Veils” feels like it’s going for the jugular, it just … stops. After spending time getting invested in Jeanine’s journey, it almost feels like cheating to have everything suddenly deflate into a hugely disappointing ending that feels very much like an afterthought.
Egoyan has often used home video to interrogate the past, particularly in his 1993 film “Calendar.” That’s a theme present in “Seven Veils,” as young Jeanine appears in a home video of her performing parts of “Salome” filmed by her father in a forest. They’re eerie, probing moments that highlight Jeanine’s lived experience effectively, and they create a genuine sense of mystery that keeps viewers on their toes, wondering what exactly it all means. This is a film fascinated by personal histories, examining how our experiences inform and define us, motivate us, thrill us, or even terrify us. It’s one of the most successful parts of “Seven Veils,” which often connects us to Jeanine’s psyche, creating an unsettling effect, even if the film finds itself distracted by too many other elements that aren’t as convincing.
Buried within unpredictable tonal shifts and a bunch of different and intriguing pieces, “Seven Veils” could have been great. I’ve long been an admirer of Egoyan’s work. His previous film, 2019’s “Guest Of Honor” effectively gets under your skin, and he’s made some of the finest films ever made — “Exotica” in 1994 is one of the best films of the ’90s, so Egoyan is no stranger to a masterpiece. But “Seven Veils” feels like Egoyan struggling under his own expectations, just like Jeanine begins to crumble under hers. The director has a deep connection to the opera of “Salome,” having directed an interaction of it in the same building “Seven Veils” was filmed in Toronto. It feels at times as if the film is more interested in “Salome” as an opera than it is in Jeanine or anyone in the actual film. Perhaps if I was more familiar with “Salome” (though the film goes to considerable lengths to explore the opera itself) it would have felt more effective to me — perhaps someone with a greater understanding of opera would adore every second of this curious, ambitious film.
/Film Rating: 5 out of 10