Adam

4 Stars out of 5

SPOILER ALERT

The main reason I am giving this film four stars instead of my usual wishy-washy 3.5 stars is that it does NOT have a predictable Hollywood ending. I will say no more. It is a love story between Adam (Hugh Dancy), a lonely man with Asperger's Syndrome, and his upstairs neighbor, Beth. She is Rose Byrne, whom you'll remember as Ellen from Damages, if you watched Damages on FX. Her character teaches elementary school in Manhattan and is the wealthy daughter of a sleazy accountant (Peter Gallagher). Remarkably, the summary on AOL Moviefone's web site mentions neither Asperger's nor autism--political correctness run wild! Since we were looking for "that film that features an autistic man's love affair," it made the film moderately difficult to find. My wife is a psychotherapist, and while she has never treated anyone with Asperger's, she tells me the depiction seems moderately true to life. I have had students who clocked in at various levels on the autism spectrum, and Dancy's portrayal matched some of their behaviors as well. The cool thing is, the summary on AOL was almost right--it really is a love story, a rom-com, a chick flick, in which the Asperger's is just one aspect of the story.

I hate the fact that my standards have become so debased, but I can only applaud writer/director Max Mayer for leading this film right up to the edge of every romantic comedy cliché in the book, then careening off in a different direction every time. Bravo!