ZOOEY & ADAM (Canada 2009) **
Directed by Sean Garrity

Canadian Sean Garrity (LUCID, INERTIA) is a director of small films.  But ZOOEY & ADAM, like the previous LUCID and INERTIA concerns a minimal number of people.

ZOOEY & ADAM would definitely more entertaining if one goes into the theatre not knowing what the film is about.  But the trouble is that the little press write-up provided tells all of what will be happening with the result of the audience just watching one event after another occur without much anticipation.

The story concerns a couple (Tom Keenan and Daria Puttaert) having fertility problems.  When Zooey is raped and gets pregnant (the script calls for her to conveniently not take her pill), Adam wonders if the child they have decided to keep is his or not.  Trouble in paradise leads to Adam thrown out and nothing much happens after.

Premise – perfectly loving couple’s status quo shaken by a rape.  Assuming one knows of the film’s plot, the rape scene loses its effect totally despite it done stylishly with campfire lighting.  One also can guess the type of arguments that will arise with the child’s upbringing and so forth.  Despite impressive effort in the acting department, Garrity’s film fails to hold much interest or genuine sympathy for the couple.  Garrity’s film also has an empty feel as he has left out most of the other people in a couple’s lives like Zooey and Adam’s parents, relatives and friends.  Too few a handful of people interact with Zooey and Adam. 

Garrity’s film contains no message or aim except to demonstrate the misery that awaits a couple if some odd unlikely event occurs.