Adam DVD Review

Adam is a February 2nd romantic comedy DVD release from Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment.  Directed by Max Mayer, the movie was the winner of the Alfred P. Sloan Feature Film Prize, awarded to a film which excels in addressing compelling topics in science or technology at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival.

Adam (Emmy award nominee Hugh Dancy of Confessions of a Shopaholic and Beyond the Gates) is a young man with Asperger’s Syndrome, a condition also known as high functioning autism.  His father just died six weeks ago and he is left to fend for himself after he is let go from his job as an electrical engineer.

Beth Buchwald (Emmy award nominee Rose Byrne of “Damages” and 28 Weeks Later) is a brainy, beautiful teacher who moves in next door to Adam.   Beth is intrigued by Adam’s good looks at their first encounter on the front steps.  She makes a few subtle moves to catch Adam’s attention before realizing that his inability to ‘get it’ is more than him just being a typical guy.

Adam, like others with Asperger’s, has an obsession.  He loves science and astronomy.  He also struggles with knowing when to turn off his relentless talk about it.  After a few brief interactions, Adam discloses his condition to Beth.  He wants her to understand why he struggles with basic social interaction and why it is hard for him to go out with her friends and into public places.

As their relationship develop, Adam becomes more reliant on Beth for support and she becomes more enamored with Adam’s gentleness, but also his uniqueness.  Ultimately, the question she must answer is whether she and Adam are in love or are simply dependent on each other.

Beth’s father (Peter Gallagher) is a major factor in a sub-plot of the story.  He is dealing with allegations of accounting fraud, which could cost him money and prison time.  He is very adamant that Beth not get deeply involved with Adam because his differences would only hold her back.

Other supporting stars in Adam are Amy Irving (Yentl, Crossing Delancy) and Frankie Faison (“The Wire,” Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist).  However, there is no question it is the relationship between Adam and Beth and the chemistry between the actors, Dancy and Byrne, that makes Adam one of the more unique and heartwarming romantic comedies on DVD in 2010.

Ironically, Adam released on DVD just a few days before Dancy’s real life girlfriend Clare Danes portrayed Temple Granden in a made for TV movie on HBO Saturday, February 6th.  Granden is arguably the most famous person known to have an Autism Spectrum Disorder.  Her story is fascinating and inspiring to families affected by Autism and parents of children with Autism.  Dancy and Danes should have a lot to discuss about their experiences.

It is hard to assess the quality of performance of someone portraying an Autistic character since the Autism Spectrum Disorder is best known for the wide range and severity of symptoms people face.  Some critics and viewers have suggested that Dancy was not as ‘quirky’ or ‘odd’ as a high functioning autistic person.  However, again, who could say that his interpretation is not evident of someone with the condition.  A comparison of the Dancy role and the Granden portrayal by Danes shows different personality types and challenges, despite a common set of basic symptoms.

Dancy delivers a solid performance simply by looking at his ability to draw the audience to the gentle and charming side of his personality.  You find yourself rooting for him to succeed and to get the girl.  Byrne is lovely and it is nice to see a story that inspires people to see there is some hope for people on the ASD to find love and a relationship, whether it ultimately leads to forever or not.

If you are a fan of typical romantic comedies, you cannot help but feel an extra bit of emotion for the story of Adam.  You want the couple to make it.  Those “awww” moments that lead to watery eyes in a romantic comedy are especially momentous when you understand the struggles Adam faces to get Beth’s feelings and to know the right things to say and do.  Adam is a very entertaining and very charming romantic comedy movie that offers a character people can connect to high functioning autism, at least as a fictional example.  The most common character identified with Autism is Dustin Hoffman’s Rain Man.  His character, based on the recently deceased Kim Peek, is more representative of what is known as ‘classic autism’.

MPAA Rating: PG-13
Running Time: 99 minutes
DVD Release Date: February 2, 2010

Grade: A-

Director: Max Mayer
Starring: Hugh Dancy, Rose Byrne, Peter Gallagher, Amy Irving, Frankie Faison

Adam DVD Review by Neil of Movie Room Reviews

The Informant DVD Review

The Informant, from the director of Ocean’s 11, 12 and 13 (Steven Soderbergh), is a February 23rd Blu-ray, DVD and Download release from Warner Home Video.  Dramatized for film but based on true events, the movie tells the amazing story of Mark Whitacre (Matt Damon), a man who worked with the FBI to uncover price fixing at his company, only to get caught up in a web of embezzlement and lies.

Mark Whitacre is a brilliantly intelligent man (now an officer for Cypress Systems – noted at the movie’s end).  He is approached to participate in the FBI’s investigation of ADM, a food processing company who participated in various forms of price manipulation for profit.  Scott Bakula plays the lead agent who works closely with Whitacre in the taping of over 200 internal conversations over a span of a few years.

During the time Mark works with the FBI and builds a case against his company, he also embarks on his own embezzlement operation and manages to gather over $11 million in funds in a short timeframe.  Mark’s ambition is to hang his company’s leaders out to dry so that he can take over management of the company with cash in hand.

As Mark gets more deeply involved in his own criminal actions, the FBI begins to look at him as a target as opposed to a compliant witness.  Mark’s efforts to protect himself combined with his intelligence leads to an amazingly drawn out saga of lies and deceptions.  Mark uses his bipolar disorder as an excuse to conveniently lie and cover up his lies.  He almost seems to convince himself that he is telling the truth as he is formulating his lies.

Though the real story behind The Informant movie is one of expensive crime, the movie itself is cleverly presented as a dramatic comedy, right to the catchy soundtrack.  The story is light and humorous and Matt Damon is brilliant in his role as the brilliant Mark Whitacre.  His portrayal, despite being completely different in look and character, is reminiscent of his work on The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999).  In that role, Damon takes on someone else’s identity and the story is built on his ability to lie and manipulate.

Scott Bakula is solid as the lead FBI agent who ultimately is taken advantage of by Whitacre, and who suffers a loss of reputation in his position. 

The Informant is a quality movie about a very intriguing story.  It is good, not great, but certainly worth watching if you enjoy movies based on real events, but with a light-hearted feel.  Steven Soderbergh makes this movie his own and Matt Damon drives the story home in a way that probably only he could have done with his chracter.  The movie is Rated R for language, but is fairly modest with regard to other common thematic elements (limited or no violence, sex, nudity).

MPAA Rating: R
Running Time: 108 Minutes
DVD Release Date: February 23, 2010

Grade: B

Director: Steven Soderbergh
Starring: Matt Damon, Scott Bakula, Joel McHale, Melanie Lynskey

The Informant DVD Review by Neil of Movie Room Reviews

Remarkable Power DVD Review

Remarkable Power!, released by MTI Home Video on February 16th, is an over-complicated and boorish, supposedly comedic film whose only positives might be in its production and editing! Jack West (played capably by Kevin Nealon) is a TV talk show host who smolders at seeing a video of his wife Cynthia (Sandra Hess) cheating on him with LA professional baseball star Doug Wade (Johnny Messner). He has this tape through the surveillance techniques of a licensed private investigator played by Tom Arnold (who also gives a good performance that is entirely wasted on the bad writing in this film!). A sub-plot involves loser Ross (Evan Peters) who meets up with Preston, the star of Remarkable Power!, a vague and generalized self-help infomercial about making money (where the only money made will be by what’s taken from those who send in for the information, which includes Ross). The sub-plot goes on to not shocking but boring involvements with death, drugs, and beautiful women like Candy (Whitney Able).

The plot winds its way in and out of time confusingly (telling us something occurred four days earlier, eight days earlier, etc., and we would have to backtrack in the DVD and study it thoroughly to comprehend the real time-line)! The murdered people don’t really look dead, but rather covered with massive tangles of unbelievable blood. A drug emissary, Reggie (Dule Hill) is carjacked so that his sender, Preston, has no money for Moses (Jack Plotnick) and his gigantic baseball bat-wielding bodyguards. Moses is supposed to be a comical figure, but any comedic element is dead here before it hits the screen! Other subplots are placed in artificially and seemingly for no reason at all.

The characters are embarrassingly superficial and it is impossible to feel anything for them. They seem to be the nebulous plot’s pawns on a scaringly unstructured chessboard, and no amount of good acting can counteract the bad writing. Why should we care about Jack West and his TV program in which he parades freaks? Why should we feel for him about his failed marriage since he himself shows almost no emotion at all, or why should we care about his cheating wife (who just seems to want his money)?

Most of all, why should we care about loser protagonist Ross, who is extricated from every difficult situation by tricks of fate and believes that he deserves to change overnight from Brewer Boy of Milwaukee, Wisconsin to a moneyed Los Angeles businessman? Death doesn’t phase him, and Candy’s attraction to him makes no sense (except for believing his lies about fame and money). In fact, most of the women in Remarkable Power! are portrayed as money-grubbing!

I have no idea why this film was ever made and am astounded that Tom Arnold agreed to play a part in it! Robots could easily have been employed to star as these characters! Even Absurdist humor has, at base, human insights – greed, revenge, the pursuit of happiness – but in Remarkable Power all of the actors seem to be going through inexplicable traumas. In fact, it seems that life is happening to them rather than having them initiate anything of value. Parts of the ending (except for one twist) are agonizingly predictable!

Not for family or teenage viewing (rated R for the soft porn surveillance and bouts of violence), Remarkable Power! has no power at all. My recommendation is to stay away from it if at all possible since it has no redeeming value, not even laugh value!

MPAA Rating: R
Running Time: 91 minutes
DVD Release Date: February 16, 2010

Grade: D-

Director: Brandon Beckner
Starring: Tom Arnold, Kevin Nealon, Evan Peters, Kip Pardue, Nora Zehetner, Dule Hill, Sandra Hess and Whitney Able

Remarkable Power! DVD Review by Christina of Movie Room Reviews

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