The story has two dovetailing strands. There's Bruce Greenwood's traumatized tax agent who tries to get over the murder of his daughter (for which he was for a time falsely accused of) by going to Exotica, a high-class strip club where he has a strange (and platonic) relationship with a dancer whose shtick is dressing up like a schoolgirl. And then there's Don McKellar (the hilarious Darren Nichols from Slings & Arrows) playing a repressed exotic pet dealer, investigated by Greenwood. Also watch for young Victor Garber and even younger Sarah Polley. Egoyan creates the film in editing, pacing it non-chronologically as revelations of the heart. The relationships are mysteries but obviously important, and only by the end do we understand why the characters are who they are. It's masterful and surprisingly touching. Don't let the sordid subject matter put you off

Consistently brilliant cerebral puzzle on the unseen boundaries of communication and human contact.

I thought it would all come together and make sense eventually.

It did not all come together and make sense eventually.

At least it didn't start raining %$&**# frogs.