Amanda Seyfried and Canadian director Atom Egoyan have reunited for a daring psychosexual film that defies easy explanation fifteen years after she starred in "Chloe." Egoyan has always delved right into fraught familial ties without shying away from ugliness, and “Seven Veils” is perhaps his most overt exploration of familial trauma.
Seyfried plays theater director Jeanine, who puts on a production of Salome as her return to opera. Oscar Wilde originally wrote the play, which tells the classic biblical tale of a woman demanding John the Baptist's head. Salome wants the head in Wilde's play so she can finally kiss his lips. John the Baptist disdains Salome as a living man by refusing to gaze upon her or acknowledge her affections. His murder is a terrible injustice as a result of this rejection. The opera version of the play follows the same plot and allows song to convey Salome's pain and the tragedy of the play as a whole. When she was younger, Jeanine studied under Charles, a brilliant director whose death has left a hole in her life. His final wish was for her to direct this remount of Salome, a pointed reference to their relationship. Her memories of him are intertwined with memories of her late father Harold (Ryan McDonald), whose relationship with her was characterized by unhealthy obsession. In the present, their young daughter Lizzie (Maya Misaljevic) is unaware that Jeanine and her husband Paul (Mark O'Brien) have split up. They’re both back home with Jeanine’s mother Margot (Lynne Griffin), who is being looked after full time by her nurse Dimitra (Maia Jae Bastidas). On top of mounting such a large opera production, Jeanine privately worries that Paul and Dimitra are secretly involved, seeing each other in her mother’s house. Not that her relationship with her mother is much better, as the shadow of her father looms large in their lives. Her mother always responds, "He loved her too much," when asked what her father did to Jeanine. As if Salome were a conventional play, Jeanine obsesses over minute performance, prop, and stage directions details. Her frequent interruptions to rehearsal and changes to the production itself often confuse the actors and alarm management, especially Charles’s widow Beatrice (Lanette Ware). There’s even more backstage drama with Clea (Rebecca Liddiard) who has an uncomfortable time with the opera’s temperamental and chauvinist lead Johann (Michael Kupfer-Radecky). Like Jeanine, Clea has personal ties to the production as well—she used to date the other lead Ambur (Ambur Braid) and is currently with her understudy Rachel (Vinessa Antoine). Completing the web is the other understudy Luke (Douglas Smith), who seems to harbor feelings for Jeanine. None of these connections are explored fully, keeping the focus on the production details of Salome.
During rehearsals, Jeanine is haunted by thoughts of Charles and her father. As a result, she exhibits a great deal of emotion and anguish, which she refuses to conceal from her coworkers. Everyone can tell that directing this opera is a struggle for her, but her position dissuades them from speaking plainly. As Jeanine works, there’s a sense that whispers follow her wherever she goes. One of the most affecting recurring images in “Seven Veils” is a video of a young Jeanine blindfolded in the forest, filmed by her father in different settings and poses. These are memories Jeanine shared with Charles that he later incorporated into Salome. This exemplifies the baffling nature of their connection—an affair brought to light by an irrational and unbalanced artistic collaboration. Seyfried plays Jeanine as a woman possessed by the traumas of her past, aggressively seeking some form of emotional catharsis. McDonald is effectively haunting as her late father, his image standing in for both him and Charles. We are left to imagine that Charles had the same quiet madness in his eyes, disguised as artistic passion. However, the only thing that is certain is Jeanine's suffering! There’s an air of mystery to the film that Egoyan never quite resolves. The third act of “Seven Veils” has the feeling of a big climax, leading up to a large emotional crescendo. However, the revelations do not occur on stage. As the audience, we are left to wonder if the emotional revelations will stick as the characters collide with one another in lasting and meaningful ways. It's possible that the goal of everything was to free Jeanine—and thus everyone else—from the specters of the past.
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