"Adam" - REVIEW

Movies about characters with disabilities, mental or physical, are tricky, especially when there’s a romantic plot involved. Either a film will try to hard to not go overboard with schmaltzy moments and become too distant and cold, or as is more often the case in Hollywood, shamelessly yank at our heartstrings. Then there’s option three, exemplified by Max Meyer’s “Adam”, which manages to be touching without the schmaltz, due to the strength of its leads.

Opening with an oddly rushed voice over, we are then introduced to Adam Raki (Hugh Dancy), a New York City based electronic engineer with Asperger’s Syndrome. His father has recently passed away, leaving Adam alone in his father’s sizeable apartment where eats the same meals every day, and has a fascination with the cosmos. Just when it looks like he’s going to get stuck in a rut, he gets a new neighbor. A very pretty new neighbor named Beth Buchwald (Rose Byrne), who slowly starts to build a friendship with Adam after an awkward first encounter in the laundry room of the apartment. Like any romance the relationship will have its ups and downs, complicated by Adam’s condition.

The two best decisions made in “Adam” were the casting of Byrne and Dancy, and Mayer’s general tone of innocence in the relationship. When Beth first sees Adam’s makeshift planetarium and exclaims “oh my!”, the tone of her voice and the look in her eyes isn’t that of a ditz, but that of a genuine, innocent, awe-struck child. It’s a moment that manages to be adorable without being sickening, much credit of which has to go to Byrne, who, while beautiful, is able to downplay her sex appeal and lend these moments the degree of innocence needed to make these moments work. Matching her is Dancy, who was given the incredibly tricky task of playing a romantic lead with Asperger’s, without accidentally mocking those who actually have the condition. He succeeds wonderfully, from the look/s in his eyes to the oh-so-slightly stilted line delivery that still manages to deliver emotional depth. Though the tone and situation are quite different, Byrne and Dancy certainly give “(500) Days of Summer”’s Zooey Deschanel and Joseph Gordon-Levitt a run for their money.

Unfortunately, Mr. Mayer’s script can’t keep up with his leads. The story is oddly put together, especially at the beginning. The scene where Beth sees Adam’s planetarium is hindered by the fact that it occurs so early, when the pair barely know each other. Placed just 15 to 20 minutes later, it could have achieved greater impact, because we would have had more time to see Beth and Adam’s relationship start to grow. Instead, it lands smack dab in their second meeting, and slightly out of the blue. Then there are the subplots. Chief among them is one involving Beth’s father (Peter Gallagher). Though it plays an important role and gives Beth her own set of personal issues to deal with, it doesn’t fit into the romance that well, and culminates in a strangely jarring shout-off in the second half of the film between Beht, Adam, and her father. There’s also the character of Harlan, played by Frankie Faison, who gets thrown an empty shell of a subplot involving a long lost love that is neither interesting nor satisfying.

On the artistic/technical front, the results are mixed. Cinematography seems to be coated in pale blue-greys, lending an overriding sense of sadness, which is can be oddly effective. However, there is one distracting moment where the camera takes on Adam’s point of view that feels entirely pointless and pretentious. Editing on the other hand is strange. While never dull, there seem to be an awfully high amount of really rough cuts when the film changes scenes. Whether these are signs of the low budget, or just a lack of polish is hard to say. Musically, the film is hit or miss. Sometimes the mellow score/soundtrack works well in enhancing the mood of scenes, but other times it comes across as harsh and over the top, lending an unneeded sense of anguish to scenes that would fare better with less noise.

So as a whole, the project is one supported almost entirely by its leads, which is no small feat considering that this is a romantic drama (though there are some very funny moments) involving Asperger’s. In spite of technical inconsistencies and uneven writing, there is an undeniable sweetness to “Adam” that is admirable amid romantic films that focus too heavily on the sexual aspect of the romance. Had it not been for Byrne and Dancy, this could have been an abject failure; luckily that’s not the case. Not necessarily a film that one should rush out to see, but it is worth seeing for its two leads, who overcome an awful lot of hurdles to deliver a near perfect chemistry in a movie where nearly everything else is flawed.

Grade: B-