Adam

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It's been since November since I saw Adam for the first and only time. I remember initially being pissed off that the broke Adam and Beth up.

Now my problem is with the whole movie (minus Rose Byrne...not just her looks...she's wonderful.)

I don't know anyone with Aspergers in real life who is THAT clueless that they would ask a girl if she was aroused the time they were looking at the stars, or dress up as an astronaut and try to clean her windows...the problem with taking things literally isn't THAT bad.

I felt even Forrest Gump (who was supposed to be mentally ret*d) was better functioning than him.

I am however still upset at the ending. With Byrne's acting (and also she's the kind of beauty that isn't all glitz and glam and ego and it's believable that she would give someone like Adam a fair chance) I felt that they belonged together.

The message from the movie I got was "Aspie males are too dumb to know what real love is, don't have any emotions, and just want/need a surrogate mother."

Adam was pretty independent for an Aspie...he didn't NEED Beth's help...it was a cop out and stereotype by the movie.

So I guess my problem is the ending and also the way the Adam character was written and portrayed as if someone just read a diagnosis book about Aspergers and decided to put every cliche in the book, literally and figuratively.

Everyone with AS is different, so some people are going to watch a movie like Adam and think it’s a home run, and others will watch it and think the filmmakers are idiots who wouldn’t know Asperger’s from their as*holes. It’s a spectrum, after all, and ten different people will fall in ten different places on it. For me, I found it much more accurate than Mozart and the Whale. I’m not quite as clueless as Adam, but he’s very close to me. If I had never heard of Asperger’s before, watching the film would have been a revelation for me.

I didn’t come away feeling that the film was implying that people with AS are “too dumb to know what real love is, don't have any emotions,” just inept at expressing themselves, which is certainly true for me. As for the ending, it’s refreshing to see a romantic movie where the two leads ultimately don’t end up together under contrived circumstances for a formula ending.

1. Adam lived a very sheltered life with his father.
2. Adam's father, the closest person in his life, died.
3. His father's death had a deffinite impact on him, his overt literalism and outbursts might've been caused or amplified by this.
4. Because he lived a sheltered life he was not independent and probably had little to no experience interacting with women.
5. If Adam and Byrne's character had stayed together then she would have become a surrogate mother since he was desperate for stability after his father's death.
6. The ending showed that Adam (and as an extension, aspies in general) can grow to become successful and independent.

I really loved this movie, related to it a lot...

I agree with Lecks about the message. I think for me the message was that Adam himself wasn't at a stage in his development where he was ready to full responsibility for his AS and how he treats people. Beth helped him to gain the self-awareness of his blindness towards others' feelings, and as a result he is propelled to become more independent. I think it's a very beautiful story.

I enjoyed the movie but hated the character of Beth.