Adam
Rose Byrne and Hugh Dancy in quirky romcom Adam
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Monday, 03, Aug 2009 10:44
Directed by Max Mayer, starring Hugh Dancy, Rose Byrne, Frankie Faison and Peter Gallagher. Out August 7th in cinemas, running time 99 mins.
In a nutshell...
He's not Forrest Gump, you know.
What's it all about?
Adam likes to keep himself to himself. He lives with his father in a sheltered existence which allows him to hide from the outside world and prevents complications arising from his Asperger's Syndrome become too unbearable. However, the sudden death of his father and the arrival of his new neighbour Beth completely alter his life.
Adam and Beth, two people from different backgrounds and almost entirely different realities, come together and develop a relationship based on love and sacrifice - a relationship which falters and at the same time blossoms at every turn.
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Who's in it?
Hugh Dancy is one of the most promising up and coming British actors currently working in Hollywood. Recent films include The Jane Austen Book Club and Confessions of a Shopaholic.
Rose Byrne is best known form the TV series Damages where she plays lawyer Ellen Parsons. She will next grace our screens in the latest project from Judd Apatow - Get Him To The Greek.
Adam is Max Mayer's second feature film, following his 1998 debut Better Living. He has also directed a series of TV shows including Alias and The West Wing.
As an example...
"Adam, his mother, and his father were a family of talking raccoons that lived in the middle of New York City. They didn't really belong there, but there they were." - Beth narrating her book
"I'm not Forest Gump you know." - Adam to Beth
What the others say
"Adam is a cut above most romances and boasts an intriguing conclusion. One comes away with a sense of hope, leavened by realism." - USA Today
"Emotionally potent performances, gently offbeat humour and writer-helmer Max Mayer's assured touch guide this tender New York love story to a quietly hopeful conclusion." - Variety
So is it any good?
There is always the danger with romantic films that they can get so swept away in the desire for a fairytale ending that any integrity and realism that may have existed in the proceeding hour or so is aimlessly discarded. Thankfully, Adam is not one such example.
Throughout the film director Max Mayer makes sure to constantly tread the very thin line between believability and fantasy with his leading couple. With such an acute problem as Asperger's, to have Adam evolve into a heartthrob and cast off his personality defects would frankly be ridiculous and the film would become a joke. Instead, Adam remains haunted and crippled by his condition.
There are some aspects to Adam and Beth's relationship which may stretch things a bit far, such as the speed at which they get together without really very much effort on his behalf at all, but on the whole the story and the characters' response to their problems are more than believable.
Dancy is fantastic as Adam, adopting a mighty fine American accent and a perfectly balanced performance as an Asperger's sufferer - soft enough to draw you in and evoke sympathy, but also with an underlying tension that makes you realise things will never be truly calm and stable in Adam's life.
Byrne is also on top form and there is a real similarity between her Beth and Shannyn Sossamon's Lauren in Rules of Attraction. Both are vulnerable young women endlessly screwed over by men and desperately searching for true love but constantly thwarted by dilemmas out of their control. (They also happen to look very similar with beanies on.)
In between the romance and emotional turmoil there are some nice gentle comedic interludes, mainly from Faison's Harlan, which help distract from Adam's condition and the unravelling of Beth's family life. Some may criticise Mayer for not delving deep enough into Adam's condition and the effect it has on him and all those with whom he comes in contact. But ultimately, the ending is so finely balanced that one walks away able to appreciate the immense difficulties and pain without ever having to have them played out on the screen.
Adam is a sweet film, made all the more touching by its refusal to sugar-coat events. The film highlights how there can in fact be can true beauty in heartache and tragedy.
8/10
Richard James