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Adam, the character as played by Hugh Dancy, has Asperger’s syndrome, which reduces his level of social interaction and general ability to empathize with others. Having not known anyone with Asperger’s, I can only guess that Dancy does an accurate job of portraying Adam as a smart but awkward young man whose routine is thrown astray once his father passes away.

Adam, the movie, though, doesn’t let us in on his condition for a good thirty minutes, during which he loses his dad and his job and during which he meets cute with new neighbor Beth (Rose Byrne). Do we hold the movie responsible for having us laugh at the character because we didn’t know that he didn’t know better when certain foibles come to light?

We’d have to ask writer-director Max Mayer, who I do believe means well, as does Dancy, as does everyone involved (though Byrne’s attempts to perk up her voice come at the cost of a reliable American accent). That’s how these movies are made after all, with good intentions. It won’t going to set the box office aflame any time soon, but it’ll warm the hearts of any who ask it to, albeit in familiar melodramatic fashion. It just depends how much it bugs you that Beth’s dad (Peter Gallagher) is under investigation for corporate crimes and doesn’t want her settling for someone like Adam, and it just depends how much it bugs you that we’ve been assured by movies like this before that Adam and Beth, both being imperfect people, will help one another against all odds.

And, frankly, I thought Adam, the movie would bug me more than it did, because of the contempt that familiarity breeds and the frequent laziness of filmmaking that means well and the cynical chip I tend to carry on my shoulder day by day. But Adam, the character won me over, by depending less on quirky gestures like cleaning Beth’s windows while in an astronaut suit (yes, really) and more on his and her little efforts to make a relationship work through tiny gestures and compromises that no courtroom-bound subplot can dictate. Maybe that’s more to the credit of Mayer as director than writer, as he shoots NYC in a flattering yet understated way that makes the tiny gestures ring more true while his writer’s instincts only come across as more false.

Take away the Asperger’s, and 'Adam' is a very familiar tale of age-old forbidden love and modern romantic neuroses that still might grate at some who’d rather not bother (and immediately win over those so very fond of anything remotely twee). After months of being subjected to a two-minute quirk-heavy trailer, I feared it might just grate on yours truly, but while I came for 'Adam,' the movie, I stayed for Adam, the character, and frankly, there are harder rocks and places to be stuck between.

link directly to this review at https://www.efilmcritic.com/review.php?movie=18163&reviewer=409
originally posted: 08/29/09 04:57:35
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