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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Romance meets Asperger’s

Rose Byrne plays Beth and Hugh Dancy stars as the title character in “Adam.” New Line Cinema (New Line Cinema / The Spokesman-Review)
Steven Rea Philadelphia Inquirer

“I’m not Forrest Gump, you know,” says the title character of “Adam,” uncharacteristically cracking wise as he holds onto a box of chocolates.

And he’s right: Adam Raki (Hugh Dancy) isn’t a Southern-fried idiot savant gallumphing through life. He’s a brainiac New Yorker, but one with a disorder that makes his every waking day a challenge.

Adam is an “aspie” – he has Asperger’s syndrome, a highly functioning form of autism. It’s a condition that makes it difficult to connect emotionally with other human beings.

And therein lies the dilemma of Max Mayer’s nicely observed, if slathered-on-thick romance: Is it possible for an aspie and an NT – a “neuro-typical” – to fall in love?

Beth Buchwald (Rose Byrne) is about to find out. Single, pretty, a grade-school teacher, she moves into the same walkup that Adam has long lived in.

There are comically awkward exchanges. He shares his knowledge of, and obsession with, astronomy. And then there’s an invitation from Beth to go out.

Adam is eager, but also afraid. He’s a creature of habit, his apartment – with its kitchen stocked with uniform boxes of mac and cheese – his safety zone.

The tentative first steps, and stops, of Adam and Beth’s relationship are chronicled with sweetness and humor, and with moments of sadness and pain.

Dancy, looking off to some invisible point (Aspergers avoid eye contact) brings precision and poignancy to his performance, even when the script requires full-throttle cuteness (i.e., donning an astronaut suit and dangling by a rope outside of Beth’s window).

Likewise, Byrne’s turn as a woman both attracted to and unsettled by her unusual neighbor is nuanced and nicely drawn. Beth not only has to contend with Adam and his anxieties, his quirks and tics, she has to deal with a major crisis concerning her father (Peter Gallagher) and mother (Amy Irving).

It can be argued that “Adam” uses Asperger’s as a kind of metaphor for the barriers that people erect to fend off strangers, to guard against intimacy.

It can also be argued that writer/director Mayer is shamelessly manipulative – throwing in various misunderstandings and melodramas to test Adam and Beth’s fragile alliance.

But to its credit, “Adam” doesn’t go for the cheap, easy solution. In that way, it shares something of the spirit (and realism?) of “(500) Days of Summer”: an acknowledgement that not every close encounter, no matter how meaningful, can last forever.