Adam

• Director: Max Mayer
• Writer: Max Mayer
• Cast: Hugh Dancy, Rose Byrne
• Theatrical Release Date: July 29, 2009
• Distributor: Fox Searchlight
• Criticwire: C+
• On The Web Film WebsiteIMDB Entry

Synopsis: Soon after moving in, Beth, a brainy, beautiful writer, encounters Adam, the handsome, but odd, fellow in the downstairs apartment. A pleasant chemistry flows, but his awkwardness is perplexing. Whether avoiding eye contact or standing by blithely while Beth drags a heavy load up steep stairs, Adam seems utterly oblivious to social convention. Then one night, Adam regales Beth with an elaborate outer-space light show. It’s a magical moment, tainted slightly by his obsessively thorough astronomical explanation. Their connection is palpable. It becomes clear that Adam's inability to decipher nonverbal signals is beyond his control. And yet Beth doesn’t balk. Their mutual interest tentatively takes root.

Round-up: Kevin Thomas of the LA Times states quite simply, "'Adam' is a great-looking, beguiling film with its burnished Manhattan settings and lovely score." At Cinematical, Eric D. ... Snider raves about the lead performances, especially Dancy's, "Central to the film's success is Hugh Dancy's smiling, earnest performance as Adam, a role that easily could have turned one-dimensional and sappy. There is much to admire in Rose Byrne, too, who has chemistry with Dancy and a girl-next-door sexiness of her own. As a pair, Dancy and Byrne are easy to like." In his B- review, Owen Gleiberman justifies his middling grade by saying, "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." Slant's Matt Noller is less enthusiastic, "The film frequently seems too divorced from reality to make any genuine humanist statement, and Mayer too often treats Adam's frayed social skills as a source of gentle humor."