Adam
Maxabout Review
Film about Relationships, Understanding, and Love. ...
Friday, July 31, 2009
A good, if contrived, romantic comedy that exposes the normal world to Asberger’s syndrome while drawing a line between love and dependence. It is almost a gimmick. The Asberger’s part would have been better if it would have provided more insight into average Asberger’s sufferers who cover up their symptoms and lead what appear to be normal lives while actually faking a lot of normal behavior.
Subtlety and nuance mark both the film's dialogue and performances. It's hard to see how Dancy and Byrne could be any better, and that goes for Frankie Faison, a wise, supportive friend to Adam, and for Peter Gallagher as Beth's dashing -- but deceptive -- father and Amy Irving as her elegant, resilient mother. Gallagher's and Irving's roles grow in importance as the film progresses, adding crucial dimension.
The title character of Max Mayer's Adam is a 29-year-old electronics engineer with Asperger's syndrome — and yes, he is one of those
charming, saintly, afflicted movie misfit child-men. He's played by British heartthrob
Hugh Dancy, who never got the credit he deserved for romancing Isla Fisher with debonair understatement in C
onfessions of a Shopaholic. The way Dancy portrays Adam (with great skill), he's a hermetically shy, overgrown whiz kid who's like
Forrest Gump with a touch of Norman Bates and the look of an elegantly skinny framed Jake Gyllenhaal.
Considering the story’s twee details — Adam’s passion is the heavens, Beth’s is teaching tiny children — and a tonally disruptive subplot concerning Beth’s parents (Peter Gallagher and Amy Irving), “Adam” is more involving than you might expect.
It is a story that has the women emerging as the rational power figures and the men spending most of their lives learning who they are. Given the current socio-political state of affairs in America this may be a fair assessment. But not to worry, this is not a tragic ending where Adam electrocutes himself trying to create the next talking fish toy for his idiot boss in the garment district. Writer / director Mayer lifts us up and sets us down gently and with a lesson to remember.
The mild charm of Adam — and what makes it, at times, a piece of borderline kitsch — is that it's an affliction movie in which the hero's handicap is so much less severe than it is in. The film frequently seems a bit daffy for placing it so front and center.
The humor is delicate, and the performances sweet and sure; the script (by the director, Max Mayer) is not entirely predictable, and the Manhattan locations (lovingly photographed by Seamus Tierney) have a starry-eyed glaze. The film’s ending sets it apart from the mediocre romantic comedies in that the couple learns to live apart and each succeeds on their own terms. It is a happy ending that does not trivialize the challenges and mixed successes of a normal life.
"Adam" is a great-looking, beguiling film with its burnished Manhattan settings and lovely score. It is the second film from theater director
Max Mayer and, to his credit, it is not in the least theatrical in either Mayer's script or direction.
Though the script is well written and not particularly overwhelming (pauses and subtle body language is always better than having the characters unrealistically speak at every turn) a few minor adjustments should have been made to smooth out the kinks, such as both Adam and Beth repeating statements as questions.
Adam is sweet, meticulous, and, at times, sort of clever, but it's also a not-quite-surprising-enough heartwarming trifle. "Adam" is a most welcome summer treat. Adam is a breath of fresh air not in its typically unoriginal genre. Its focus on a disorder that many suffer from, coupled with an amazing performance by Hugh Dancy and Rose Byrne is film making you can appreciate and savor, long after you’ve stepped out the theater and thrown away your popcorn.