Adam(Hugh Dancy) first meets Beth(Rose Byrne) outside the laundry room of their apartment complex. They "meet cute". Startled by this variation to his regimented routine, Adam freezes, and retreats from the chaos that portends ahead. It's plain to see the man is socially awkward, but he seems harmless enough. There's something about Adam which makes Beth stop and consider, for the time being, the time it takes to do the wash, at least, that her neighbor might be "relationship material". Adam lets her use his laundry card. They do their laundry; they meet cute, which orientates the moviegoer to the inception of love that begets the love story in a romantic comedy. Due to the particular condition of the protagonist, however, the mechanics of the genre can't be taken for granted, becomes complicated, since there's an uncertainty about the man's ability to reciprocate romantic love. Contrary to his asexual exterior, Adam, who is afflicted with Asberger's Syndrome, owns a collection of pornographic DVDs, a seemingly disparate aspect in his pathologically tidy closet, because he seems too remote to be interested in sex. Does he have a love life, albeit with himself? The film suggests that he does. Seated at the dinner table with his laptop, Adam introduces Julia Roberts along with James Lipton on "Inside the Actors Studio", word for word, and then he drops a piece of macaroni and cheese in his lap, possibly near his crotch. He looks down at the stain, guiltily: a metaphor, perhaps, for the fantasies he has of Ms. Roberts. Adam understands a base emotion such as lust. But "Adam" never proves that its titular star understands love. So when Adam first meets Beth in the very next scene, the "meet cute" becomes less cute, if loveless lust is what lies beneath his impenetrable facade.
Adam needs a mother, somebody to nurture him, not a lover, since he's more child than man. Beth is perfect, too perfect, as if she was written for him. Coming off a bad relationship with a philandering boyfriend(and increasingly irked by her overbearing father), Beth seems prime for a situation where she's firmly in control and can call all the shots. Moreover, she's a teacher at a fancy private grammar school. At this school, Beth asks a colleague about Asbergers, and the colleague tells her that people like Adam are high-functioning austistics. The colleague should be more blunt when Beth goes fishing for an endorsement of her new embarkation. She should translate "high-functioning autistic" in layman's terms. Beth's new lover, in all likelihood, has the same emotional development as the children she teaches. "Adam" tries to portray an unconventional couple(in the vein of Jeremiah Chechik's "Benny and Joon", just to name one), but it takes two misfits to be truly winsome. Beth is normal, and should know better. Beth's father misses the point entirely when he lectures his daughter about the cons of getting involved with Adam. While he's right that his daughter's most unlikely suitor presupposes to be a liability for Beth in professional and social circles, the unfeasibility of the relationship is twofold, since she's pushing Adam past the limits of his emotional range. The father doesn't cast a critical eye towards Beth, and to a certain degree, neither does the film. "Adam" privileges Beth through the omission of filmic evidence that would implicate her as an anti-ingenue. Beth errs by getting involved with a, for all intents and purposes, handicapped man, but her transgression is glossed over with judicious editing choices and an unchallenging script. Except for a kiss, a real kiss, their sex life is merely suggested, sequestered beyond the diegesis, in the fade-out, where their writhing bodies make a promise without being judged, in our imaginations. If the filmmaker showed the physical side of their relationship, the scene in which Adam lashes out at Beth over a harmless white lie, would mean something more than just the lie itself. The film hides Adam's sexual immaturity in the tropes of the romantic comedy. Sure, Adam cries, as he tries to get Beth back, but the tear might denote a self-awareness of the deficiency in his emotional reservoir. Most people will read this tear on a simpler level, on a boy loses girl level, and since "Adam" ends on an uncomplicated and hopeful note, the film endorses genre(the romantic comedy) over real life, hence, the tear isn't as knotty as it should be.
Adam needs a mother, somebody to nurture him, not a lover, since he's more child than man. Beth is perfect, too perfect, as if she was written for him. Coming off a bad relationship with a philandering boyfriend(and increasingly irked by her overbearing father), Beth seems prime for a situation where she's firmly in control and can call all the shots. Moreover, she's a teacher at a fancy private grammar school. At this school, Beth asks a colleague about Asbergers, and the colleague tells her that people like Adam are high-functioning austistics. The colleague should be more blunt when Beth goes fishing for an endorsement of her new embarkation. She should translate "high-functioning autistic" in layman's terms. Beth's new lover, in all likelihood, has the same emotional development as the children she teaches. "Adam" tries to portray an unconventional couple(in the vein of Jeremiah Chechik's "Benny and Joon", just to name one), but it takes two misfits to be truly winsome. Beth is normal, and should know better. Beth's father misses the point entirely when he lectures his daughter about the cons of getting involved with Adam. While he's right that his daughter's most unlikely suitor presupposes to be a liability for Beth in professional and social circles, the unfeasibility of the relationship is twofold, since she's pushing Adam past the limits of his emotional range. The father doesn't cast a critical eye towards Beth, and to a certain degree, neither does the film. "Adam" privileges Beth through the omission of filmic evidence that would implicate her as an anti-ingenue. Beth errs by getting involved with a, for all intents and purposes, handicapped man, but her transgression is glossed over with judicious editing choices and an unchallenging script. Except for a kiss, a real kiss, their sex life is merely suggested, sequestered beyond the diegesis, in the fade-out, where their writhing bodies make a promise without being judged, in our imaginations. If the filmmaker showed the physical side of their relationship, the scene in which Adam lashes out at Beth over a harmless white lie, would mean something more than just the lie itself. The film hides Adam's sexual immaturity in the tropes of the romantic comedy. Sure, Adam cries, as he tries to get Beth back, but the tear might denote a self-awareness of the deficiency in his emotional reservoir. Most people will read this tear on a simpler level, on a boy loses girl level, and since "Adam" ends on an uncomplicated and hopeful note, the film endorses genre(the romantic comedy) over real life, hence, the tear isn't as knotty as it should be.