ADAM (USA 2009) ***
Directed by Max Mayer

ADAM is advertised as a love story about two strange people one tsranegr than the other.  The boy, Adam (High Dancy) has an undisclosed sickness that is supposed to be Asperger’s syndrome causing him to behave anti-socially.  He comes across Beth (Rose Byrne) a new tenant in his apartment building and a love relationship develops.

Adam is an electronics engineer working for a toy company.  Beth is marking time teaching while her main goal is to write children’s books.  One thus assumes that the child-like nature of Adam be the feature that attracts her to him. 

Mayer’s film is a very sweet and simple one – though over simplistic it is at times.  One wishes for one that Mayer would disclose the problem that plagues Adam – as it is strange that this intelligent person with engineering knowledge acts too much like a child.  Not much is mentioned of Adam’s family either.  The best part of the film is the analogy given by the voiceover at the start when the relationship is described as analogous to the pilot and the little prince in the French fairy tale LE PETIT PRINCE by Antoine de Saint Exupery.  Who is the pilot and who is the little prince in the relationship?

Reality also steps in, in the form of Beth’s parents, wonderfully played by Peter Gallagher and Amy Irving, both absent from the big screen for a while.

Mayer opts for a more realistic ending that is brave as it is not necessarily a happy one.  The best thing of ADAM is the message that Mayer sneaks up on his audience.  Not to spoil the ending, all I would disclose is that Mayer shows in his tale that there is more magic to love than love itself.