Adam
Fox Searchlight Pictures | Release Date: July 29, 2009 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
56
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 27 Critic Reviews
Positive:
16
Mixed:
10
Negative:
1
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
80
Los Angeles TimesKevin Thomas
Subtlety and nuance mark both the film's dialogue and performances. It's hard to see how Dancy and Byrne could be any better. Read full review
75
ReelViewsJames Berardinelli
The tendency for an actor in a role like this is to overact. The result is often disastrous, reducing a character into a caricature. Hugh Dancy, adopting an American accent as effectively as the mannerisms of someone on the moderate portion of the Asperger's spectrum, makes Adam believable and generally sympathetic. Read full review
75
New York PostLou Lumenick
The beautifully crafted Adam offers no pat or easy answers. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleAmy Biancolli
It's the speed of love, not the speed of light, that occupies Adam, a small, sweet movie about one man's widening cosmos. Read full review
75
Portland OregonianMarc Mohan
When it's not lapsing into disease-of-the-week prose, Adam presents a credible account of the challenges inherent in this misunderstood and often-ridiculed condition. Read full review
75
St. Louis Post-DispatchJoe Williams
It may not be original, but Adam could leave a lump in your throat. Read full review
70
The Hollywood ReporterKirk Honeycutt
A sensitive but not sentimental story about a romance involving a mentally challenged young man never makes a misstep. Read full review
70
VarietyJustin Chang
Emotionally potent performances, gently offbeat humor and writer-helmer Max Mayer's assured touch guide this tender New York love story to a quietly hopeful conclusion. Read full review
70
The New York TimesJeannette Catsoulis
The humor is delicate, and the performances sweet and sure; the script (by the director, Max Mayer) is not entirely predictable, and the Manhattan locations (lovingly photographed by Seamus Tierney) have a starry-eyed glaze. Read full review
70
Washington PostDan Kois
At its best, Adam makes the viewer understand the frustration of living in a world in which everyone is a stranger -- not least by making us work as hard to understand its hero's feelings as Adam himself must work to understand Beth's. Read full review
67
Entertainment WeeklyOwen Gleiberman
It's hard to buy this relationship even for a moment. Adam is sweet, meticulous, and, at times, sort of clever, but it's also a not-quite-surprising-enough heartwarming trifle. Read full review
63
USA TodayClaudia Puig
Adam is a cut above most romances and boasts a intriguing conclusion. One comes away with a sense of hope, leavened by realism. Read full review
63
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
Adam wraps up their story in too tidy a package, insisting on finding the upbeat in the murky, and missing the chance to be more thoughtful about this challenging situation. Read full review
63
Philadelphia InquirerSteven Rea
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. Read full review
63
Miami HeraldRene Rodriguez
The most daring thing about Adam, the story of a young man with Asperger's syndrome, is that there isn't a scene in which someone stops to explain exactly what Asperger's IS. Read full review
63
Baltimore SunMichael Sragow
The climax and epilogue are the juiciest, most tough-minded bits in the movie. Too bad Mayer didn't work his way backward from the end. Read full review
60
Wall Street JournalJoe Morgenstern
Adam succeeds at getting inside its hero's mind and, more impressively still, gives us entrée to his singular soul. Read full review
60
EmpireAnna Smith
A very superficial look at what it may be like trying to romance someone on the autistic scale. Read full review
58
The A.V. ClubNathan Rabin
Dancy’s character has difficulty processing information and dealing with emotion, but even he could probably see through this schmaltz. Read full review
50
Village VoiceElla Taylor
Other than Rose Byrne's on-screen radiance and a soothingly warm palette lit by cinematographer Seamus Tierney, there's not much to get passionate about in this amiable chamberpiece from theater director Max Mayer. Read full review
50
SalonAndrew O'Hehir
Beyond that educational element and the delicate performances of Dancy and Byrne, I found Adam dramatically limp, predictable and in a curious way even retrograde. Read full review
50
Boston GlobeWesley Morris
Is a man with Asperger’s boyfriend material? It’s difficult to determine how we wind up here, but it’s strange that a movie ostensibly about a man and his lack of social options left me depressed about a woman and hers. Read full review
50
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Jennie Punter
Were it not for the fine engaging performances of both Dancy and Byrne, Adam would be sickly sweet. Read full review
50
Chicago ReaderCliff Doerksen
As predictable as the alphabet but should hold particular appeal to women whose maternal impulses inflect their mating instincts. Read full review
50
New Orleans Times-PicayuneMike Scott
As well-intended as it is, writer-director Max Mayer's film lacks focus. Read full review
40
Film ThreatJessica Baxter
I find nearly every film about mentally challenged characters excruciating to watch...None of these movies ever come close to accurately depicting what it’s like to live with mental challenges. Read full review
30
Austin ChronicleKimberley Jones
This is the kind of movie in which every other line of dialogue feels like a metaphor – and from there on, the film seesaws between the uncomfortable extremes of glum and twee: an overwrought dirge keyed to a xylophonic ping. Read full review
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