Adam (2009)
Directed by Max Mayer
Adam, a lonely man with Asperger's Syndrome, develops a relationship with his upstairs neighbor, Beth.
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What critics say influenced Adam
From its promise of an instructive, girl-meets-unlikely-boy tale of wonder to the astronaut suit antics, twinkly, hipster-uplift soundtrack, and deadly Forrest Gump joke, the trailer for Adam, Max Mayer’s ballad of love and Asperger’s, said two things to me: strap on your adorable crash helmet and get ready to learn.
On rare occasions, the outcome can be highly-charged drama, most notably with Tom Hanks in Forrest Gump, Russell Crowe in A Beautiful Mind and Dustin Hoffman in Rain Man.
After successfully establishing a baseline for Asperger's understanding, Mayer inserts a weak "Forrest Gump" joke to underline Adam's higher intelligence.
Where films of Forrest Gump's ilk have whiter-than-white heroic characters, Adam isn't afraid to show unpleasant sides to its protagonist.
He establishes Adam as a real person, not a Rain Man substitute.
On rare occasions, the outcome can be highly-charged drama, most notably with Tom Hanks in Forrest Gump, Russell Crowe in A Beautiful Mind and Dustin Hoffman in Rain Man.
And while autism and Asperger syndrome have played a role in plenty of other movies, Adam isn't some Rain Man redux about a cocksure hot-shot who learns a thing or two from the guy with the alienating social impairments.
To his credit, Dancy doesn't take the showstopping Rain Man route, but, however underplayed, his Adam is all too authentic for most social intercourse.
Cynical cinemagoers will say: “Haven’t we done this before in Rain Man?” Can any actor add anything new, even if behaviourally more accurate, to Dustin Hoffman’s performance?
The mild charm of Adam and what makes it, at times, a piece of borderline kitsch is that it's an affliction movie in which the hero's handicap is so much less severe than it is in, say, Rain Man or Charly that the film frequently seems a bit daffy for placing it so front and center.
With 2001’s I Am Sam reaching the zenith in terms of mental disability as depicted on screen, Adam treads on dangerous ground in its bid to not go –as Kirk Lazarus from Tropic Thunder would say - “full on retard” in order to be effective.