Adam (2009)

The range of human emotions in relationships is expansive, for most people. From the very stunted to the exquisitely delivered, the expression of these emotions can be a high wire act for even the most evolved people. How is it for those who lack the sensing/feeling antennas that allows a person to anticipate what the “other” thinks, feels and needs to hear, in communicating emotions? “Adam” is a love story about a young man with Aspergers Syndrome* who has just lost his father. An attractive and friendly young woman, Beth (Rose Byrne) has just moved into the apartment building where Adam (Hugh Dancy) lives. They begin a relationship that develops with fits and starts as he deals with his awkwardness and she learns to accept it.

A sweetness pervades the halting, gentle interaction between the two New Yorkers as they draw closer to one another despite coming from very different backgrounds. Beth is the daughter of a gregarious, successful accountant (Peter Gallagher) and a mother (Amy Irving) who dote on their accomplished daughter. Adam has only a faint memory of his mother and lived with his engineer father in the same apartment all of his life. Beth teaches in an elementary school and wants to create children’s books. He works for a friend of his father who owns a toy story and creates ingenious mechanical toys too expensive for the owner to sell.
Dancy portray’s Adam’s disability as an endearing shyness and his social inadequacy through his inability to look directly at people. However, he has a winning smile and his intelligence and enthusiasm differentiate him from the more severe forms of autism. When Beth first comes into his apartment he shows her the universe, as a planetarium he has created on his ceiling. Adam socializes with difficulty but his enthusiasm for the stars is infectious. Beth knows what she is getting into but lets her heart lead. Adam has never been in love before, only knows what he feels long before he can express it. They come together but are separated by an annoying subplot involving Beth’s parents.

Performances involving mental disabilities are a formidable challenge for any actor. Hugh Dancy plays his role with a deft touch, not overdoing the handicap, nor minimizing the obstacles it creates. As the romance unfolds the audience is reminded that with love all things are possible. It is a hard storyline to reject.

*Asperger Syndrome is named after a Viennese doctor who treated young male patients with, “normal intelligence and language development, but who also exhibited autistic-like behaviors and marked deficiencies in social and communication skills”. (http://www.aspergersyndrome.org/)

Adam. Written and directed by Max Mayer. Starring Hugh Dancy, Rose Byrne, Amy Irving, and Peter Gallagher.