MOVIE: ADAM
Boy with Aspergers meets Girl with broken-heart. Cue romance, comic awkwardness, fatherly disapproval, and gorgeous location shots of autumnal New York. Sundance-screened Adam seems to have all the ingredients of a commercially-viable “off-beat” rom-com. And yet, the film’s central focus on Adam’s disability transforms it from potential cardboard-romance into touching character study. Hugh Dancy tugs at heartstrings as the emotionally-dysfunctional hero grappling with the demands of social interaction and relationships. While it’s charming to watch the romance unfold, co-star Rose Byrne is slightly bland as cute-as-a-button Beth Buckwald, whose over-alliterated name and knitted cardigans grow tiresome. A heart-warming film with an ending that makes you think twice about romanticising disability, Adam hits the feel-good spot without resorting to a cheap portrayal of dysfunction as adorably quirky. (LR)
