Adam

Sep 122009

adamreview Usually movies that feature a character that has any sort of of mental condition will have me screaming “OSCAR BAIT!!” and turn me almost completely off. I don’t think any of us needs to see another ‘I Am Sam’ any time soon now do we? I’m happy to report that ‘Adam’ doesn’t have any ridiculous moments of a desperate actor looking for a statue and despite a few flaws it ends up being one of the sweetest movies I’ve seen all year.

Hugh Dancy plays Adam, a pretty handsome and extremely bright young man who has Asperger’s syndrome. You can clearly see that he’s led a sheltered life. His father has just passed away and Adam is now on his own for the first time. He spends his days working as an electronic engineer for a toy doll company, and his nights studying the stars and eating macaroni and cheese. This is all until Beth, played by Rose Byrne, moves into his building.

So just what is it about ‘Adam’ that separates itself from other movies of the same ilk? It’s freaking Hugh Dancy, that’s what it is. It certainly helps that I’m not terribly familiar with the guy. He’s not overexposed in any way, and he’s got a fresh face. There is none of that ‘actor begging’ that I mentioned previously. There is enough subtlety offset by a few scarier outbursts that make Hugh Dancy just plain kick ass, ok? I have to be careful or I’ll just gush about this guy for the next couple paragraphs.

The movie does a pretty good job at handling the relationship of Adam and Beth. The complexity and the dynamic of it is something that is not normal for most of us, making an audience feel comfortable without sacrifice is no small feat. Writer and Director Max Mayer pulls this part of the film off, but falters a bit with the secondary plot he’s running simultaneously which involves Beth’s father (Peter “Eyebrows” Gallagher) and some serious legal trouble he is in. I get what Mayer was trying to do and to explain further would be to delve into spoilerish territory, so I’ll just leave it at this: It didn’t need to be there, but I’d wager that it won’t bother most of you. It’s a minor nitpick from me, that’s all.

To put it simply, ‘Adam’ charmed the hell out of me. I walked in expecting to maybe mildly enjoy it at best, and walked out with a smile on my face and very glad that I now know who this Hugh Dancy fellow is.

Oh, and by the way? My name is Adam. No, seriously.