Movie Review: Adam (2009)

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Due to the fun yet admittedly self-conscious trailer that features our eponymous lead character uttering an obligatory Forrest Gump joke, I think that most people going to see writer/director Max Mayer's Adam will assume it will be a lighthearted romantic comedy with a little Asperger's Syndrome awareness on the side.

However, those expecting to be spoon-fed the same cinematic set-up of boy meets girl that we usually encounter will be quite surprised by the work that begins with both very little dialogue and also the sight of Hugh Dancy's Adam at the burial of his father.

Still inevitably Mayer does go for some rom-com conventions when the gifted genius meets cute with his new neighbor Beth (Rose Byrne) as we realize literally that if A (for Adam) and B (for Beth) share enough screen time then C (a romantic crush) will develop. Yet, it's nonetheless a remarkably brave decision to open the Sundance Film Festival award-winning work in a way that places visuals over dialogue.

As such, with an offscreen death and acquainting us with the man who takes part in an evening ritual alongside laptop to offer him company and distraction, initially Adam is reminiscent of the start of Hal Ashby's Being There which also focused on a character who most likely suffered from some type of autism and engaged in repetitive distraction in the form of television instead of computers.

However, by choosing to convey a great deal of information visually instead of employing narration a la Fox Searchlight's other romantic themed film (500) Days of Summer or inventing a cliched character to offer us a back-story in the form of a monologue, Mayer's Adam therefore invites audiences to engage with the work on an intellectual level.

And while this is refreshing to say the least, fortunately for us, we're never required to possess the same technologically advanced knowledge that our main character uses to create expensive computer chip based toys until eventually he's let go because he can't make them cheap enough.

Obsessed with physics and the infinite nature of the universe which seems as infinite and unexplainable as our main character himself-- Adam is awe-struck when his beautiful neighbor Beth (Rose Byrne) seems to show more than just a polite interest in the cosmos.

A schoolteacher who aspires to become a children's book author, Beth is attracted to Adam from the start and finds his ideas of impressing her with an interior planetarium in his apartment and raccoon watching in Central Park charming... until that is, his bluntness goes a little too far. And soon he ultimately has to reveal that he lives with Asperger's Syndrome which prevents him from reading between the lines of the emotions, body language and internal process of others.

Uncomfortable in crowds, Adam is likewise unsure how to react when her parents (Amy Irving and Peter Gallagher) ask a halfhearted question about a historic theatre which results in Adam rattling off more facts than could fit into an entire encyclopedia. Still aside from their differences in social behavior, somehow the two fall into what could most likely be construed as love until you realize that "love" as an abstract, indefinable concept is something as hard to pinpoint for Adam as the data of other galaxies.

Exceedingly well acted by the entire ensemble cast-- in the film this is evident most importantly by Dancy who can bring tears to your eyes within seconds before he makes another startling remark unsure just why he's nearly arrested for simply watching the children on the playground at Beth's school.

And thankfully the film avoids the temptation to sugarcoat Asperger's Syndrome as well as the challenges faced by those living with and those who love individuals with disabilities. Additionally, while Mayer's film succeeds on a purely word-of-mouth, intimate charming level that like The Station Agent as the type of movie you want to hug and recommend to others-- sadly it suffers a bit when it hits a few unnecessarily protracted and predictable plot points.

Unfortunately, the delicate balance of the film is nearly lost as too much time is dedicated to the indictment and trial of Beth's smooth-talking yuppie father in a one-note role and subplot we couldn't be less interested in for the film other than-- like Adam's loss of a job-- having a timely Enron-esque significance. For, despite being well played by Peter Gallagher who's been typecast in these roles ever since Sex, Lies and Videotape and While You Were Sleeping, he's given nothing to work with and just hits his marks in a few contrived sequences that won't surprise anyone who's seen a romantic dramedy before as he tries to encourage Beth to date someone without a disability.

As the movie evolves and his character begins to devour the screen time, I began realizing that Adam was revealing yet another significant influence via the film's similarity to another Fox '80s classic-- Cameron Crowe's Say Anything. Although while the end of Say Anything was slightly vague yet far more optimistic about the characters' future together than The Graduate-- I think the way that Adam evolves and ultimately concludes will probably come as something of an unusual surprise for those fooled by the ads into believing the picture was going to be just a slight deviation of the rom-com genre.

While I hesitate to reveal anything other than to say that once again, the movie seems to appeal more to one's intellectual side by going for a natural progression of events as the two begin to grow and change thanks to one another in a way that relies on viewers to interpret, overall I have to share how pleased I was by the filmmaker's decision to avoid the trappings of the genre.

Although he nearly sabotaged his own cleverly devised picture with the uninteresting and unappealing plot surrounding Beth's parents that makes the Beth and Adam relationship suffer from stale predictability for a short period of time, in the end it's redeemed by the strength of it as a whole. Moreover by placing creativity at the forefront of Adam from the unique opener to the similarly intriguing conclusion, Mayer's infinitely likable work is a nice, old-fashioned and offbeat change of pace to the standard "boy meets girl" formula. And as such, it marks the best film of this type since Fox Searchlight's previous but superior sleeper hit (500) Days of Summer released just a few months ago.

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Blu-ray Review: Confessions of a Shopaholic (2009)

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Much like Rebecca Bloomwood (played by Isla Fisher), as a young girl I too was entranced by the idea of "magic cards" that could be swiped instead of handing over real, actual, tangible money for goods and services. This fascination also extended to checks to such an extent that I actually remember advising my mom to "go for it" once when we were at the grocery store after she told the clerk she had forgotten to stop at the bank so would need to whip out the checkbook.



"You don't need money, mom; just write a check," I informed her-- seriously unaware that much like the pretty cards (which are far more gorgeous today with impressionistic backgrounds and AmEx status plastic that resembles shiny gold)-- the pieces of paper you tore from the book that always seemed to stick to the messy carbons were temporary stand-ins for what was in your bank account. Of course, I also assumed that the reason you had to show your driver's license when you wrote a check (back when people actually wrote checks) was to prove to the cashier that you had a driver's license, were trustworthy, and would therefore drive the groceries home safely.

While it was safe to say that a career involving personal finance or accounting was not in my future-- it's exactly this line of work that Fisher's Bloomwood alarmingly finds herself in-- advising readers of Successful Saving magazine how to manage their money and understand the lure of a store credit card and initial 0% APR under the pseudonym of "The Girl in the Green Scarf."



Aside from it being a cute moniker to use as she types in a fresh hip style-- sort of like a feminine or flirtatious Dear Abby for the Madison Avenue and Wall Street set in the male dominated world of finance-- the choice not to share her real name in her byline is extremely savvy for two reasons. And selfishly the most primal excuse for Fisher's journalist is that-- as per the case in most chick-lit works-- the magazine scribe Bloomwood longed to join the staff of a Devil Wears Prada a.k.a. Vogue, Elle, Marie Claire, or Glamour style magazine with the film's fictitious Alette run by Kristin Scott Thomas in her new, irresistibly funny, sassy French mode. To this end, she realizes that she doesn't want the less-than-chic Saving gig to immediately limit her resume (that also boasts work on a gardening magazine) or have it tied to her name as she aspires to use her position as a stepping stone to move into the publication that's printed by the same company.

However, Bloomwood's second reason for taking the fifth-- or hiding behind that luscious green scarf that led to the first encounter with her would-be editor Luke Brandon (Jane Austen Book Club actor Hugh Dancy) which then led to the cushy assignment in a world where magazines go under every day-- is to stay several dress-lengths ahead of Robert Stanton's merciless collector who's eager to have the shopping addicted Bloomwood settle her roughly seventeen thousand dollars of credit card debt.

Forever dodging Stanton's crafty Derek Smeath-- Bloomwood persuades Luke and her new workplace family that he's a stalker who just can't let their relationship end to hilarious yet admittedly illogical effect. And conveniently she misses him long enough to discover that-- although her own spending is out of control and she's resulted to reading Money for Dummies, trying to follow the advice of a stop spending DVD hosted by Ed Helms and using Google to pad out her stories-- she has a knack for helping others understand their own fiscal situation.



As beautiful as a dress by Vera Wang and as bright as a Marc Jacobs patchwork purse-- Confessions of a Shopaholic dazzles especially in the ridiculously stiletto sharp clarity of Walt Disney Home Entertainment's Touchstone Pictures Blu-ray. And the film from Muriel's Wedding and My Best Friend's Wedding director P.J. Hogan based on two of bestselling author Sophie Kinsella's five books in the Shopaholic series manages to amuse despite its vacuous frivolity and the misfortune of being released not only a few years after the far superior Devil Wears Prada but also in a time of economic recession.

Audiences who've been box office shy anyway and also coolly received the dumbed-down female-centric works like Bride Wars, What Happens in Vegas, The House Bunny, 27 Dresses, He's Just Not That Into You, and Made of Honor which continually casts women in either the pursuit of the right accessory or just the right male form of accessory-- avoided the ill-timed theatrical run of Shopaholic to a large extent. And most likely it's because the last thing you want to do when you can't afford your own credit card bills, rent, or student loan payments is to try and relate to a character who has a job and her health yet rings up couture as though it were nickel cups of Kool-Aid from a child's lemonade stand.

However, much to my surprise and delight, I actually was pleasantly surprised by this adaptation of Shopaholic. While I'd never read any of Kinsella's books in the Becky Bloomwood series and there are some contradictory messages both subtextually and on the surface in this adaptation as our heroine learns she needs to watch her spending yet at the same time marches her dreamy boss into a Prada store-- overall I applauded the attempt to remind viewers that you can't find yourself in a label (even if at times, the movie seems to argue the opposite in its fetishistic handling of designer wear and upscale stores).

Furthermore I must confess that honestly, it'd be nice if we were presented with a heroine not quite as daffy as this Manhattan damsel in distress who comes complete with salt-of-the-Earth parents (Joan Cusack and John Goodman) and a saintly best friend (Kristen Ritter). Still, Isla Fisher who actually studied at a Parisian clown college as part of her performance training is a master at the pratfall and able to pull off that difficult trick of-- instead of piling a bunch of clowns into a car-- making us like Rebecca Bloomwood's warmth and true heart even though there's so much about her personality we just don't understand.



And with this in mind-- despite our enjoyment of the movie-- it's hard to completely forget the real tough facts about debt as it dances (literally with a fan in one of Isla Fisher's funniest moments) over the devastating truth that shopping addiction can be as catastrophic as any other. Thus instead it uses the idea for laughs in some over-the-top shopaholic anonymous meetings and via some cat-fights involving women who wield credit cards like weapons whenever there's a sale. So by trying to make the movie more escapist than sociological-- which definitely wouldn't have been appropriate for Disney nor a Jerry Bruckheimer production (he was responsible for such ahem "strong female?" works such as Coyote Ugly and Flashdance after all)-- the focus is shifted from Successful Saving to watching our heroine ditch the money man.

However, it still remains mindlessly fun entertainment despite some flaws and my fear that in lieu of an ultimately good message-- I think young girls will still want to look like Rebecca Bloomwood in Gucci and Zac Posen among others, not understanding the joke that those really responsible for her attire were Master Card, Visa, American Express and Discover among others who make those irresistible magic cards-- bankruptcy and personal relationships be damned.



A great deal of the film's charm is owed to Fisher who consistently seems to be on the verge of the A-list with wonderful work in movies such as this one (arguably her biggest star vehicle), the bittersweet romantic comedy drama Definitely Maybe, Wedding Crashers and others. Overall, she's beautiful, bubbly, and willing to unleash her "inner idiot"-- as she calls it-- to make us laugh with the confidence to switch from drama to comedy when her partner Sacha Baron Cohen (a.k.a. Borat or Bruno) suggested she should audition for those films. And the movie is always elevated by Fisher who pitched her own jokes despite the fact that she was five months pregnant while meeting the filmmakers during the casting process and her investment in making Bloomwood lovably funny is Shopaholic's saving grace. Frequently it is Fisher as Bloomwood who manages to draw our attention no matter how much eye candy, Fashion Week wear, historical New York buildings, Miami scenery, or shots of the yummy Hugh Dancy are included in the same frame.

Overall it's a typically exceptional Disney Blu-ray with an impressive soundtrack and the sharpest of clarity in a package that also comes with a Digital Copy of the film. And while the extra features including unfunny bloopers, music videos, and deleted scenes are easy to skip-- fashionistas will want to explore the super short exploration of the film's amazing costumes and couture courtesy of designer Patricia Field whose taste in wardrobe is unparalleled, having also worked on Devil Wears Prada and both the film and television versions of Sex and the City.