THINKFilm announced today that the company will appeal the Motion Picture Association of America's (MPAA) "NC-17" rating of the suspense filled mystery, Where the Truth Lies. Academy-Award- nominated writer-director Atom Egoyan will speak on behalf of the film at the upcoming appeal. An "NC-17" rating from the MPAA restricts access to the film to audiences under the age of 17. An appeal date is being set.

THINKFilm chairman Robert Lantos, who is also the film's producer, notes: "'Where the Truth Lies' is a sophisticated and intelligently provocative film. The NC-17 rating will unfairly limit people's access to it because of the number of theaters in America which will not play an NC-17 rated film. This film stars some of the most talented actors in the movies today, is based on a popular mainstream novel and is written and directed by a filmmaker known for his artistic integrity and achievement. The film has not encountered this kind of restrictive rating anywhere else in the free world. Only in America will many be deprived of access to it."

The film tells the story of what happens during a ménage a trios that leads to a girl's death and it is the ménage a trois scene which has yielded the NC-17 rating. Continues Lantos, "This scene is done using a single sustained mastershot in order to allow the actors the most conducive environment for intimacy and intensity, and in order to best communicate what happens in the film's pivotal scene. It cannot be cut without compromising the central scene of the narrative and thus rendering the mystery of the film incomprehensible. It remains more than a bit absurd to me that this scene would garner an R if shot exactly the same but from just torso up, but becomes an NC-17 because the mastershot reveals full bodies."

In Where the Truth Lies, based on Rupert Holmes' acclaimed novel of the same name, Kevin Bacon and Colin Firth star as Lanny Morris and Vince Collins, the country's hottest entertainment duo. Lanny and Vince are knee deep in all the wealth and power that comes with such fame. That is, until a beautiful girl (Rachel Blanchard) turns up naked and dead in the pair's hotel suite after a night of wild partying. Years later, an intrepid reporter (Alison Lohman) sets out to discover what happened that night, only to be lured into the seductive games of these men.

The film received its world premiere at Cannes this year and will have its North American premiere as an official gala of the 2005 Toronto Film Festival. Where the Truth Lies marks the sixth collaboration between Atom Egoyan and Golden Globe nominated producer Robert Lantos. The film is scheduled to be released on October 14 in New York and Los Angeles, with a national expansion on October 21.

(PS. I would have Atmon Egoyan's baby!)

Um, yeah. But we'd all have to fight off his wife, who'se quite cool by the way...so I'd feel kinda bad.

I don't mind NC17 if it was just a content warning, its just that here, it really starts denying people accesss. I also don't mind the rating, if, say, it really dealt with content. But it just deals with surface, which is irritating. Most of Egoyan's stuff is quite intense actually, so if it warranted higher age rating, it should be for that....not some girl's breast.

Darnit, I just typed a post here and the computered up.. lost it...

Anyway, the most important thing I wanted to ask was: who is he married to?

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0451376/

Arsinée Khanjian

She stars in almost all his movies. Even Hereafter, she had a small role. I believe the mother of the "hippie" couple.

She helped him do his first feature film Calendar by, you guessed it, playing his wife. Actually, I really love Calendar, and they pretty much pulled it off for pennies because he plays a photographer that goes to do a calendar of church landscapes and takes his wife along as translator. He watches her slowly falll in love and leave him while shooting on location when she begins to speak to their guide (in the mode of translation, and transition into a relationship). The movie is delivered in retrospect. Where he's at home one year later, the calendar has come out, and is up on his wall. Every month when the new image on the calendar appears it flashes back to the deepening relationship of his wife to the guide. All before his eyes because he always felt alienated learning his homeland tongue Armenian. In Exotica, she plays the head owner of the club, and she has a small role in Felicia's Journey as well. I haven't seen Ararat or Speaking parts, but she's listed in being in those as well.

She'll be in Where the Truth Lies also.

In Australia, the film has been given an R18 rating for strong sex scenes. However, cinemas here don't have a stupid rule for not showing adults only films. Thats just stupid. So its not the MPAA, its the fucking cinema chains.

Yeah, it's one thing if NC-17 is simply a high rating, like the R. But in fact, it functions as censorship; most theaters won't run it, it can't get released, etc.

Over a simple sex scene, no less. Disgusting.

They should start rating stuff like Be Cool and The Ring Two and its ilk NC-17. They're far more offensive, at least to me, than any set of breasts.

Err... there wouldn't be a problem if they really were fucking cinema chains...

Anyone else seen this? (This was the only thread I could find on the film.)

I thought there was some occasional, unsuccessful tone juggling, but I otherwise found it pretty enthralling and, crazy for a film by this guy, I thought it was an incredibly fun watch.

B+/A-

I saw it. It wasn't the best character drama I've ever seen, and it hampers from Alison Lohman being too young for her role, but it was still good nonetheless.

I don't get the Unrated/NC-17 rating though. I heard that it got the big "NC-17" because of the brief homosexual part during the threesome scene. If so, I don't understand that at all. All the other nudity in the film doesn't even put it anywhere near the "severity" of that rating. I found it to be rather tame (Nowhere near close to Showgirls) for a "controversial" film.

Right after I first saw Sweet Hereafter, they announced this picture. Been enthusiastic ever since. I'll Netflix it soon, though I wish the reviews were a bit more encouraging.