Adam Movie Discussion --SPOILERS!!--

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You can look up where it's playing by zip code.

Check out: Where is Adam playing?

Cool! Now playing often at the Egyptian (for us Seattle area people), I couldn't find any movie times a couple weeks ago when I RSVP'd for the screening on that site.

I'm going to see it this weekend and I hope the movie is still playing there. I'll check again before I go. I want to take my husband to see it and it has to be on a weekend because he works weekdays unless we go in the afternoon and then he heads into work.

My thoughts about this film:
Bad film, good acting. Adam has very strong traits of Asperger’s. Same time he is a very pleasant boy, he is sweet. He is clean and organized. He is stylish. He really avoids eye contact. This all is important, because it gives a picture of Asperger’s to people who have never heard of it.
It’s more like an educational film, gives some books and definitions. Psychologically not believable. It’s a propaganda.
I didn’t understand the joke about 1970-ties - like Adam.
I’m glad I saw the film, I have learned something about myself.
I’m Adam, but 7 times less Asperger’s from outside.

I agree with Trinny. It was a bad film overall, although there was some good acting in it. It is propaganda--great choice of words there. There seemed to be no reason for Beth to like Adam other than the filmmaker decided that the story will have a cute, relatively emotionally healthy NT girl attracted to an aspie. The entire time their relationship was developing, the reason she was with him just never became clear. She mentions him being sweet and cute, but that wasn't quite enough.

Also, the entire offshoot about her dad getting in trouble with the law and everything just seemed, I don't know, like the writer had to have something happen and that's the best thing he could come up with.

Some of the scenes where his aspie traits really kicked in hit a little too close to home. That's really the only place the movie shines--it very accurately depicts a moderately severe aspie character. The fairy tale with the beautiful woman swooping in and loving him was just that, a fairy tale. Overall, it was definitely a better done movie than Mozart and the Whale, which I was just left embarassed by, and would prefer people not see.

I thought she was attracted to him because he was honest and sincere, since she had just come from a relationship with a guy that was manipulative and insincere.



and I saw the whole thing with her father as forcing her deeper into her relationship with Adam because he said what none of the rest of them could say - that he was in criminal trouble and had not been honest with his family. Later she had to realize that honesty was expected of everyone that Adam came in contact with and her seemingly 'social lie' of knowing they would meet her parents and Adam was disillusioned at her dishonesty, as well.



yes, when he was moving his hands in front of his face while crying I related instantly. Maybe that is what they mean when they say we 'suffer' from AS. When that happens to me I certainly think I am suffering - I am miserable!

I just saw the movie this afternoon. I really liked it. As others have said, I liked seeing how Adam grew from the beginning of the movie to his time at the observatory. I also liked that Adam and Beth didn't end up together. In general I don't like movies that have a "happily ever after" ending because they just seem too unrealistic to me (cynical much? ). In this case I think it was good because I think they both genuinely cared for each other but they just couldn't make it work. Of course, I can see how the public might see this and think that a relationship with an Aspie just isn't worth the effort.

Some of the scenes were hard for me to watch because they hit a little close to home, particularly the scenes where he's alone in his apartment.

I liked this movie better than "Mozart and the Whale," mostly because "Adam" tended to rely on showing what it was like to have AS, rather than have practically every...other...line...explain what it was.

The scene at the end where Beth asks Adam why he loves her also got to me. I thought it was obvious he loved her, he just couldn't communicate it in a way that was meaningful for her. Heartbreaking. I sincerely hope my friend doesn't ask me a question like this because I'm scared now that if I explain all the things she's done that were meaningful to me she might have the same reaction.

This next part may be too much info, so skip if you're not interested.

I had a really strong emotional reaction after leaving the theater. I drove around for a while, which I tend to do when I'm in an introspective mood, thinking about the movie and the parallels I saw between it and my life. I'm not as outwardly different as Adam was, but I think internally we're a lot a like. While I was driving I started thinking about all the relationships I had that ended (usually without anyone telling me), and I couldn't help thinking that it was because they felt I wasn't worth the effort to maintain the relationship. Neither they nor I knew about AS at the time, or that I have it, but maybe they sensed something was "off" about me and they didn't want to bother to try understanding me; they couldn't even bother to tell me it was over. Of course, I'm only speculating because they never actually said anything so I don't know why they left. Anyway, thinking about these things is nothing new to me, as it happens quite often (more than I'd like). But having seen it take place on the big screen seemed to make it more...just more. I actually ended up crying for some time. I was drained by the time I got home. I ended up sleeping for a few hours, uninterrupted, which is rare.

And yes, I do sometimes have very strong emotional reactions to some movies (as well as some books and music).

Funny because I saw him do eye contact by looking at Beth in his home. Then later in the film she complained how he never looks at her and I was like "is she that stupid, he did look at her or was it not good enough for her?" Sometimes I swear some people are needy. I thought Adam also did good with flexibility. He get uncomfortable at first and then adjust to it.

Anyway I thought it was a little stereotyped and exaggerated. I'd say he still had mild AS but his traits were worse than mine. My husband could see lot of me in him but I am not as bad as him. Even he thought he was a little exaggerated. Hey at least they gave him some NT skills like shaking hands, saying "Hi how are you" and introducing himself. I also liked how they did a education on how to do an interview, it was like a narrator doing it.

"Did you feel sexual in the park?" I thought that was exaggerated and can't see any aspie asking that. They would ask something like "Are you turned on by me?" or "Are you sexually attracted to me?" But then again it's possible he didn't know how to ask it so it came out wrong. I guess it's wrong to ask someone if they're turned on by you, something I learned. The whole movie was about AS so we're supposed to assume everything he does is bad like watching kids on the playground and not listening to the police officer, asking someone what they did wrong and asking about jail time.

Another weird thing, my husband told me I act just like that where Adam gets very upset except I don't throw things or push things off tables and stuff but he told me "You have thrown things at me, cell phone, controller." But I told him that was the stress from the wedding and he was bugging me.

except that at first he ignores her, doesn't help her with her groceries, talks rarely and awkwardly and acts very strangely. And she responds to this by asking him out with her and her friends. There was no apparent reason for her to see him as anything but a weirdo, the type that women usually stay away from.



Again, it just didn't ring true to me. It's hard to put my finger on it; maybe I'm just too jaded by my own life experiences to believe that women like the Beth character really exist, and would respond to her family crisis in that way.



I related to his rage about being lied to, even though it was a rather benign lie; his gut-wrenching anxiety at the thought of going out with an unknown woman; his talking way too long to people who don't care about stuff he knows about; his gentleness and the pure torture that dealing with the everyday world can be.

What I would like to see rather than a movie that tries to take an aspie and show how to deal with one externally from an NT perspective, is a movie that somehow manages to convey what it's like to be an aspie, a person with a full range of emotions, a good heart, integrity, but also lost at sea in a world that doesn't seem to make sense, from his/her point of view. I'd like to see a movie that really shows what it's like to grow up like that, and how an aspie develops in a bubble of emotional and social isolation that is often broken only by tormentors or people he/she perceives to be tormentors. I think (hope) a movie like that would do a much better job of conveying what it's really like to be aspie than a fabricated love fairy tale, and perhaps spark some sympathy and attempts at understanding from others. Let them walk in our shoes for a while.

oh, the movie going public doesn't want to walk in our shoes, rocketman, they want to think that even if they can't hack a relationship with us someonecan, so they don't have to feel too bad about their failure to relate to us.

Why not write a screenplay with your elements included and see if it gets some notice? I would go to a movie like that.

I just saw Adam last night, I liked it. The ending was really sad, but you have to remember, it's an independant film, not Hollywood, you have to expect things to end realistically. I was actually confused for a while, thinking "Wait a minute...how can this be going the 'happy ending' route? That can't be!"

The only part I didn't really like was the scene where Beth approaches some lady at her school and they spend ten minutes or so reciting the textbook definition of Aspergers I mean, yeah, I guess they had to have it in there to explain AS to people who have no idea what it is, and only went to the movie to see a "quirky romantic comedy", but it was still pretty painful to watch. We were all sighing and shaking our heads =/

My semi-NT friend explained it, saying the reason she couldn't go with him was because he needed to learn to take care of himself. She wasn't going to go with him just to be his "mother" and take care of him all the time. Plus, I've learned from experience, that dependant kind of relationship he had with her isn't the most healthy to be in =/ After you're out of it, you just feel so helpless, like your legs are broken and someone's taken your crutches away.



I didn't pick that up at all...what I picked up was that she was just proud of him for doing so well on his own, and that he taught her a little something as well, motivating her to do her book (and if you'll notice, she went with his idea of not having the raccoons talk).

Besides, I think he just might have a chance with that box chick



Well, that's not exactly the wording she used But yeah, that part hit me really hard =/



She works with young children...maybe she saw something in Adam she could relate to? Maybe she felt sorry for him? Or just wanted something different? I don't know.

Any other AS movies worth seeing?

Yeah - I thought it suddenly turned into a bad corporate training film.

All in all - I really enjoyed the film, including the fact that he didn't "get the girl." I think it was clear enough at the end that he wasn't destroyed by his failed first relationship - which is a pretty happy ending, if you ask me.

Beth was sweet, but she really wasn't right for Adam. First, she was on the rebound - so the timing was bad. Then, while she may have liked a lot of things about Adam - she didn't really "get" him - and they share almost nothing in common. But I did catch a bit of a spark with the "girl with the boxes" at the end. I imagine that she goes on to get him to "pursue her until she catches him" (to paraphrase Heinlein.)

The cinematography was impressive. The concept of placing Adam frequently at the edge of the frame really connected with me - that's exactly the way I see myself in relation to the world around me.

I wouldn't place "Adam" in my list of top five films - but it's someplace in the top fifty.

There were things about the movie I thought were congruent to a proper portrayal of Asperger's, and then there were things I could not enjoy. Watching specific parts, for example where he gets mad and starts sacking the apartment for a minor discretion, I felt as though I were watching my own life. There were many other examples that I felt connected to, so I won't bother listing them all.

Other parts of the movie seemed to lack logic. These sections were more sparse, but stark, so I will list some of them.
At the age he is portrayed as, being highly intelligent, and clearly realizing he seems odd to most other humans, I would assume that Adam would have come up with some general heuristics to interact with others as I have done, and I'm sure many of you have also. His confidence and sense of timing in kissing the girl was also too perfect for someone who had so little social poise in every other situation, it completely contradicted his character's actions in other circumstances, and made it seem even more bizarre when he did things that would indicate more severe social problems(i.e. covering of ears when hearing something unpleasant, unable to travel any distance). Other than that some of the phrases that he did not understand the meaning of made sense logically, and would not lead to a misinterpretation, especially in the context of being in the company of much more ambiguously stated phrases that he had no deficits comprehending.


The following is a personal thought the movie generated in me, if this movie didn't give you any negative feelings, you may as well disregard it, however I would like to hear if anyone shares this feeling:

In truth, maybe the mass of my issues with the movie stem from the fact that, although Adam could not control his oddities enough to make the relationship work, he was at least unabashedly himself. I've read lots of books on social interactions as well as psychology, and I've learned to cope. But I still WANT to do many of the things Adam had done in the movie, and then think "Can I do this? Does that make sense to everyone else? I can't, they'll know how much is really wrong with me". I know the word wrong is not positive or accurate depending on your thoughts, but my use of it here should be regarded as outside of the dominant equivalence class of brain function. No negative connotation attached. Incongruent to societal thinking would also work.

I feel oppressed having to constantly turn to algorithms and empirical data for situations, feeling inadequate and broken, completely apart from the people right next to me. At least for someone like Adam, he wasn't struggling and becoming miserable trying to blend in with everyone else.
I never go off on rants about technology anymore. Because I know nobody wants to hear it and I seem weird to them when I do. Not expounding the information makes me feel as though something is wrong with the world, like it's not working right, because I feel whatever I was thinking was something everyone should know, and how horrible it would be for someone to not know it.

Did anyone else wish they could go backwards to behaving more like Adam when watching the movie? Knowing the difference now I can't revert back to not using social algorithms, because that would cause me to lose things I currently have, a non intentional loss of something is not acceptable.

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Adam+-+Wide ... &lp=3&cp=1

The Wiki page says DVD Jan.5th but Best Buy clearly shows Feb. 2nd so if yall liked it there you go it'll be out in a couple weeks.

I don't agree with you that Adam wasn't struggling or trying to fit in -- but yes, I often feel like I have spent so much time on being what society considers normal that I have lost part of myself. I feel so much less spontaneous and genuine. And I worry about what social skills classes, etc, might do to my Aspie son.