Love Through an Unexpected Lens

by Audrey Ong

Adam is a delightful, independent film that is an “impressive and oft moving tale brought to life with memorable performances and a bittersweet account of love and its entwined complexities”, as said by IMDB reviewer Jamie Ward. It has gained rave reviews from the New York Post, NPR, The Washington Times, The New York Times as well as applause and enthusiasm from general audiences on online websites such as Yahoo Movies, IMDB, and film blogs. It has been described many times as a “beautiful gem” and “beautifully crafted”, and it certainly stands out among typical independent romantic comedies. Released in 2009, and grossing $2.3 million, Adam was indeed incredibly made. It tells the story of an intelligent, autistic man falling in love with a children’s book writer/ neighbor.

Director and writer Max Mayer, says he didn’t set out to make an “issue film” with Adam, but he wanted to show a look at relationships and their challenges through an unexpected lens. He was inspired after listening to a radio interview with a man with Asperger’s.

In a 2009 interview with Cinema Blend, Mayer said, “I look for a strong personal reaction to something that feels like it will sustain me. I thought that this was an opportunity to give people a window into something that was strange and yet universal at the same time.”

The New York Times reviewer, Jeanette Catsoulis, compliments the unpredictability of the script, the delicate humor, and the lovely Manhattan locations photographed by cinematographer Seamus Tierney. Mayer intercuts scenes of Adam’s maturation with scenes of the Buchwald family’s disintegration to show the audience just how important support groups are during trying times. Furthermore, he manages to make a film that’s funny but meaningful and give the audience characters to care about instead of laugh at and forget.

Hugh Dancy did a brilliant job performing as Adam Raki. The way he moved, talked, and limited his facial expressions was convincing. As noted by The Washington Times, “Mr. Dancy’s turn as the titular character strikes just the right balance by displaying the Asperger’s symptoms without making a huge show of them. This isn’t the over-the-top performance, and the few times he really lets loose – as he does in a surprising moment of rage at Beth – the effect is intense. Miss [Rose] Byrne, meanwhile, charms as the single daughter reconciling her anger at her father with her love for her family.”

Another reviewer said, “Playing a character who is mentally disabled can be a fast track to Oscar or to oblivion, and rare is the actor who can resist the statuette-winning, Hanks-Hoffman strategy of mannered tics and mechanical talk. And when you consider that not even Sean Penn could pull it off without making our eyeballs cringe, the performance of Hugh Dancy in the charming romantic comedy, Adam, is all the more impressive.”

Adam was a breath of fresh air, and many audiences agree and still enjoy the movie a couple of years after its release. A reviewer on Static Mass Emporium, who actually has Asperger’s, recently posted his opinion of the film just a few months ago: “A film like Adam is something of a rarity. Not only is the main character Aspergic, but the portrayal is in no way stereotypical negative or crying out for attention. Instead, it’s beautifully told and for someone like me, Adam is extremely easy to relate to; he does many of the things I do and his situations have quite often reflected my own. There’s also a wonderful humor to it, like when Beth gives him a box of chocolates and he remarks, ‘I’m not Forrest Gump, you know!’”

Not to get too heavy, but the German philosopher Nietzsche’s theory of how one can find joy outside the world of typical social expectations applies to Adam. Any movie where love or another emotion beats the square world, even if typically the passion is flawed and the price of following passion is high, relates to Nietzsche’s idea. Adam was not just a simple or typical romantic plot where two people fall in love, but instead it showed the complexity and realism of a true relationship. I personally enjoy romantic comedies, and the realism of the plot made it more appealing. In some ways, it was relatable – relationships usually stumble onto conflicts and challenges, and they don’t always end in happily-ever-afters. It wasn’t a cliché or a cookie cutter form of a typical romantic comedy. The way it was told and portrayed was refreshing and quirky with lovable characters. It shows the difficulty of unexpected challenges and surprising awkwardness. Fox Searchlight Pictures said, “Beth and Adam’s ultimate connection leads to a tricky relationship that exemplifies something universal: truly reaching another person means bravely stretching into uncomfortable territory and the resulting shake-up can be liberating.”