Wednesday, August 19, 2009

Adam


It isn't Young Adam but rather Adam. A cross between a heartfelt romancer and a disease movie of the week, Adam confounds you even when you want to like it. Don't worry the disease isn't terminal. It's asperger syndrome. As a result we have a slightly more lucid Rainman male lead (Hugh Dancy) contending with the independent minded, educated, and always mesmerizing Rose Byrne. Just an aside, I really liked Byrne in a movie that most people dogged earlier this year, Knowing. People are going to dog Adam too, but this time they'll be right.
Dancy's affliction at first worries Byrne since she has a crush on him. She studies up on the disease and finds ways to initiate a relationship. Complicating matters are her father who's involved in a court case due to his mishandling of money matters. There's no kind way to say it but Adam just lies there, derivative at every turn and just begging to be put down. The main fault of Adam is how the director just expects the audience to go with a scene because it's a park scene or a bedroom scene or a courtroom scene. There's never any reality to the reality. For instance, Byrne's dad turns out to to be up on big time charges requiring at least a few years in prison but we never actually know the actual crime he's committed. All the scenes that aren't just Bryne and Dancy are clumsy, whether it's Dancy's workplace dramas or the one-on-one conversations he was with what is apparently his only friend (Frankie Faison as Harlan).
Just because Dancy has a disease doesn't mean he has to break things in a rage. Although the way I understand it every actor has a clause in their contract that guarantees them a scene smashing up objects in the room.

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