A good, if contrived, romantic comedy that exposes the normal world to Asberger’s syndrome while drawing a line between love and dependence
Off-Broadway director Max Mayer struck a resonant chord at Sundance with this prize winning tale of love, getting what you want and getting what you need. Hugh Dancy plays the lead role of Adam, a man in his twenties suffering from Asberger’s Syndrome. Dancy was nominated for an Emmy for his work in "Elizabeth I" on TV and also played Doc Schmid in “Black Hawk Down” in 2001. His romantic counterpart is the lovely Rose Byrne playing the ultra-normal Beth from the upper middle class suburbs. Byrne won the Australian Film Institute’s Best Actress prize for the current TV series "Damages” and was nominated for a Golden Globe for the same series.
Adam and Beth meet in New York City (ho hum) when Beth moves into Adam’s apartment building. She is spectacularly beautiful in spite of hauling boxes up several flights of stairs and he is unshaven, ill-dressed, speaks in stilted phrases and is sitting on the front stoop with his computer on his lap. She is immediately to him and flirts openly. Honestly, this happens all the time in New York. If you are a nerd, this is where you want to be.
After the commercial opening (get over it, you won’t be sorry) Mayer’s screenplay goes on to explain Asberger’s in fascinating detail. It is a high functioning form of Autism---those affected talk to others and can hold jobs, but are extremely repressed and introverted. So Adam is a classically socially challenged individual. He can perform spectacularly in his profession of electrical engineering but has no concept of taking direction or of being a “team player.” So he gets fired. Even worse his father and lifelong guiding light and stabilizing force dies. Adam is in trouble.
When Beth falls in love with Adam we are in grave danger of being exposed to 99 minutes of a very sappy love story. No fear--Mayer pulls us out of that and into a different story about two people learning about love and about themselves at the same time. In fact, Beth sees a part of herself in Adam and may well love him. At least she may love part of him and want to take care of the rest of him.
Adam is an exaggerated American male stereotype out of touch with his feelings. The inability to bond emotionally is the hallmark of Asberger’s. From what little we know of the affliction, Adam is unable to love. His concept of love is needing someone to replace his father and buffer him from the worst of what society bombards us with every day, such as television advertisements.
Accompanying this primary conflict, Beth’s father Marty (played to the hilt by Peter Gallagher) is entering into crisis territory himself. He, too, needs Beth more than ever before. Too bad he also needs Beth for all the wrong reasons, primarily to keep the family together and make up for his indiscretions.
The end result is a story that has the women emerging as the rational power figures and the men spending most of their lives learning who they are. Given the current socio-political state of affairs in America this may be a fair assessment. But not to worry, this is not a tragic ending where Adam electrocutes himself trying to create the next talking fish toy for his idiot boss in the garment district. Writer / director Mayer lifts us up and sets us down gently and with a lesson to remember.
“Adam” is, essentially, a romantic comedy. It has the twist of Asberger’s but the treatment of that is superficial at best. It is almost a gimmick. The Asberger’s part would have been better if it would have provided more insight into average Asberger’s sufferers who cover up their symptoms and lead what appear to be normal lives while actually faking a lot of normal behavior. Of curse, such a treatment would have taken the film completely out of rom-com territory. The film’s ending sets it apart from the mediocre romantic comedies in that the couple learns to live apart and each succeeds on their own terms. It is a happy ending that does not trivialize the challenges and mixed successes of a normal life.
All-in-all, a rom-com with a twist and a good one at that. But a truly fascinating and insightful treatment of Asberger’s will have to wait for another day.
Directed and Written by: Max Mayer
Starring: Hugh Dancy and Rose Byrne
Release: July 29, 2009
Your Talkback on this Story