Review: Adam (2009)

[Steve Rhodes]

ADAM
A film review by Steve Rhodes
Copyright 2009 Steve Rhodes

RATING (0 TO ****):  ****

Easily one of the best pictures of the year, ADAM works on many levels. 
It's quite funny.  It's a sweet romance.  But, most of all, it is a 
mesmerizing and bittersweet story about an unusual relationship.  Full of 
naturally poignant moments, the film, while it is never manipulative, will 
frequently have you close to tears, sometimes even tears of joy.

The production works marvelously well for many reasons, so it's almost 
unfair to single out just a few, but I will anyway.  Hugh Dancy (ELLA 
ENCHANTED), in a brilliant and gripping performance as Adam Raki, a man with 
Asperger's Syndrome, is the central reason the film is so special.  But, 
without co-star Rose Byrne ("Damages"), as Hugh's upstairs neighbor Beth 
Buchwald, Dancy's work might dissolve into little more than a curiosity 
piece.  It is the unusual relationship of a guy who's different -- very 
different -- with a woman who isn't that makes the story so special.

Although Asperger's Syndrome is a complicated condition, you can think of it 
as a form of autism mixed with social anxiety and the inability to carry on 
normal conversations.  Adam, who works as an electronics engineer at a toy 
company, is brilliant and possesses a photographic memory.  In a social 
setting, he tends to blabber on non-stop with a plethora of obscure facts 
about a subject.  He has no sense of when to stop or what the other person 
might be thinking.  Although he understands concepts such as jokes, he is 
almost completely incapable of attempting them or recognizing jokes that 
others make.

In short, Adam is far from anyone's definition of a likely boyfriend. 
Still, somehow his neighbor Beth sees a diamond in the rough in him.  An 
only child from a family with money, Beth works as a kindergarten teacher 
during the day, while she works as a would-be children's book author by 
night.

A typical moving moment in the film occurs the first time the two of them 
plan on going out together.  When Beth arrives at Adam's apartment at about 
the time planned, we watch him suffering.  As Beth rings the bell on one 
side of his door, Adam, dressed up and apparently ready to go, stands in 
frozen agony on the other side.  In perhaps his first date ever, he cannot 
get up the courage to open the door, even though he really wants to go out 
with her.

An excellent subplot, which never feels tacked on, concerns Beth's parents, 
played excellently in small parts by Peter Gallagher ("The O.C.") and Amy 
Irving.  Her father demonstrates the drawbacks of a man viewed as a "catch," 
and her mother comes up with some surprising wisdom.  The best bit comes 
when Beth's mother muses that being loved is important, but loving is what 
is really crucial.  Adam, as it turns out, is almost constitutionally 
incapable of love in the traditional sense.

The trials and tribulations of the relationship that Adam and Beth form 
provide nearly infinite possibilities, especially ways for events to go 
tragically wrong.  The beauty of what these two lovebirds accomplish is that 
they manage mainly to make their seemingly impossible love affair work, at 
least most of the time.

The script is firmly grounded in reality.  At several key points in the 
story, the twists take on sad but completely believable turns.

Ultimately, ADAM works as a great love story.  I especially liked its 
ending, but, if you can't take any ambiguity, this part of the story could 
leave you a bit frustrated.  As I left the theater, the world seemed like it 
had somehow become a better place.  What is certain is that I adored the two 
leads and did not want to let them go.

ADAM runs just 1:39, but I wish it had been longer.  It is rated PG-13 for 
"thematic material, sexual content and language" and would be acceptable for 
kids around 10 and up.

The film opens in limited release in the United States on Friday, August 7, 
2009.  In the Silicon Valley, it will be showing at the AMC theaters, the 
Cinemark theaters and the Camera Cinemas starting on Friday, August 21, 
2009.

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Email: Steve.Rhodes at InternetReviews.com

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