A Blizzard, a Guestblogger, and a Movie Called Adam

gavin cardigan walked into jenn & mira's blog and said, "whoah! i don't think we're in Poor Yorick's Pub anymore!"

"go back to the Pub, gavin. i've got this one covered," burkie waved off his protagonist.

yep, burkie's in the hizzy! i , like mira & jenn, have been stuck in the hizzy for days waiting out 2 blizzards. yesterday was the one day i could get out, so i went to blockbuster® and picked up a bunch of movies. mira suggested this would be a good opportunity for me to guestblog.

so here i am. i watched Adam tonight. mira is the one who told me about this movie, which is a love story about a girl who meets a boy who has Asperger's syndrome. that's a formula that immediately sounds like, well, a formula. i think the writer/director (Max Mayer) did very good job of not falling into that trap. this is not a Lifetime movie of the week (not that there's anything wrong with that!), and it's not a gimmick movie. it's a movie about two people in a relationship and how they have to learn to manage that relationship with all that both parties bring to the table. it just so happens that one of them brings Asperger's to the table.

the performances were good. i'm not familiar with either of the leads (hugh dancy & rose byrne), but they were both charming and compassionate in their roles. too much so, of course, but this is hollywood after all (yes, even indie films are considered hollywood). i'm no expert on Asperger's. i have known a few people with Asperger's and i've read mark haddon's The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time. i would think that those who have Asperger's or who have loved ones with Asperger's would be favorably disposed toward this film. you get to see adam's idiosyncrocies, his gifts, his struggles to manage social situations, his failures & successes, and his humanity. you really get to know adam himself rather than a person with Asperger's.

as for beth (rose byrne's character), she's an alarmingly pretty school teacher and aspiring children's book author, rebounding from a failed relationship with some pond-scum guy, and has just moved into adam's building. she is also dealing with some family drama (parents played by amy irving & peter gallagher). she meets adam while doing laundry and finds him "sweet and interesting." and while her character is probably a little too...everything...to be true, you can't help but like her.

as the relationship progresses, there are ups and downs, humor and anger, compassion and misunderstandings. the audience is being groomed for a desired outcome, but whether they get it in the end, well, you'll have to watch the movie yourself to get that answer. i will say that the movie did a good job of stirring my emotions at several points, but i was surprised that i never actually, um, suffered an allergy attack. i was expecting it and, when the movie ended and i never had such an attack, i felt almost cheated. i watched the alternate ending and the deleted scenes to see if an of them would trigger an attack. pretty pathetic, huh? still didn't work. overall, a good, sweet, and compassionate film and is certainly worth watching.