Simon (Devon Bostick) has the imagination and charisma of a born storyteller. So it's not surprising that the fellow students in his French language class are transfixed by his tale of a pregnant woman who unknowingly carried a bomb onto a plane. Or that they're willing to believe that she was Simon's mother, and the terrorist who planted the bomb in her luggage was his father.

It matters little that Simon and his late parents had nothing to do with the news story he was assigned to translate, but significantly embellished. The tale becomes an Internet phenomenon, to the chagrin not only of Simon but also his teacher, Sabine (Arsinée Khanjian). Also affected is Simon's uncle Tom (Scott Speedman), a surly tow-truck driver.

Written and directed by Atom Egoyan, "Adoration" is a thoughtful, provocative film about life as we're coming to know it: an era in which knowledge is unlimited but understanding is scarce, and in which community is defined not by the people who live in your neighborhood but those who turn up on your computer screen.

Bostick turns in a quietly mesmerizing performance, capturing Simon's sense of loss without slipping into pathos. Khanjian strikes a perfect balance between knowingness and insecurity. And Speedman is impressive as a man who slowly begins to realize that anger can be self-destructive.

The alienation of modern life is a longtime theme for Egoyan, a Canadian director whose films include "Speaking Parts" (1989), "The Adjuster" (1991) and "Exotica" (1994). Egoyan broke through to the American mainstream with "The Sweet Hereafter" (1997), which was based on a novel by Russell Banks and received Oscar nominations for best director and adapted screenplay.

The success of that film might have allowed Egoyan to embark on a career of cranking out Hollywood product. But if he'd done that, we wouldn't have "Adoration."