Adam - Film Review

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The lovable Hugh Dancy, the star of the Jane Austen Book Club and The Confessions of a Shopaholic, plays Adam, a young man diagnosed with Asperger's syndrome in the Max Mayer romantic drama comedy, Adam. Beth, played by Rose Byrne, is an aspiring children's book author who moves in next door to Adam. The film tracks their uneasy relationship as Adam begins to learn to communicate and interact with people. I would recommend this for any lovers of romantic comedy films with a little twist.
Hugh Dancy plays a charming and sensitive role, yet again.

4/5

Note: Spoilers ahead

Rose Bryne narrates the opening of the film with an extract based on Antoine de Saint-Exupery's Le Petit Prince. The opening of the film infers to Adam's condition which forces him into a state of isolation, in the aftermath of his father's death. To escape the confusion and discomfort of social gatherings, he hides in his love for space exploration. Space becomes a recurring motif which both unifies and distances his relationships. His painstaking attention to minute details and repetitive actions gets him fired from his job at the toy manufacturing company. He is even mistaken for a pedophile when he stands oblivious outside a children's school. He has been living with his father in a spacious apartment in Manhattan but since his unemployment, he realizes he is unable to continue the mortgage payments.

Despite their first awkward encounter, Beth and Adam begin a perplexing friendship. On one night, Beth finds Adam outside her apartment window in a space suit, seemingly cleaning them, after Beth had mentioned that she cannot see the stars because of the cumulative dust.

Adam finds courage to date Beth who likes him despite his quirks. He admits his Asperger's to her after a night of observing raccoons in Central Park. Because of his condition, he is unable to read her emotions and pick up on social cues and clues. Beth is taken aback by his direct conversation and honesty and the relationship soon turns intimate.

However, his lack of emotional maturity and childish outbursts become a problem when Beth's father (Peter Gallagher), who disapproves of the relationship enters into legal conflicts and is subsequently convicted and sentenced.

Adam finds out about a white lie in the midst of her family complications and verbally expresses his anger to Beth who retaliates immediately.

An observatory in California offers him a job with building objects for satellites and he accepts after some hesitance. He asks Beth to join him in California but when asked why, he responds directly with saying that she would be of assistance and that secondly, he loved her. Beth decides to stay in New York, in favour of her father's wishes.

The film ends with Adam working at the observatory, receiving a parcel of Beth's first children's book called Adam, based on the events of their relationship.

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