Monday, August 3, 2009

The Trouble With Adam

I'm in my "I'm going to sum up a movie without really seeing it mode." It's not a good mode, but I'm in it regardless. I've already decided I'm not going to like Funny People even though I have been looking forward to it. Actually, my sum up a movie without really seeing it mode told me that Funny People would be Apatow's sweet spot. That this will be the film where he finally got it. But the reviews are in. Some are good and some say that it's disjointed. That it's too long. That Apatow doesn't fully grasp the dramatic part of the movie. These are all the things I was hoping that Apatow would fix. Because the truth is, his movies are too long. And a lot of the scenes feel like they're there just to be funny. I know, you're saying "but Piper, it's a comedy." And I'll say "but a good comedy is seamlessly funny. It doesn't feel like you've taken a break from the story to make something funny."



And because I'm in my "I'm going to sum up a movie without really seeing it mode" I'm going to also take aim at this trailer for the film titled Adam. It's about a guy with Aspergers. If you know about Aspergers, you know that their are varying degrees of Aspergers. If you live with someone who has Aspergers, you live with it. You understand it. There are sweet moments and not so sweet moments. I have some good friends with a child with Aspergers. He's a great kid. But here's the thing, because there's always a thing. This condition will be glorified for the sake of making a movie, I just know it. Things will get missed, or brushed over. Much like they did in The Martian Child when dealing with attachment disorder. No doubt there are highs and lows involved in children with disorders, but those highs and lows never play out to "Mr. Blue Sky" by E.L.O. or whatever indie song is popular at the time. So while the trailer looks nice and cute and whatever, I don't know that I can fully buy into it, because in the back of my head I will always be asking myself if something was compromised to make the story a bit sweeter. And if it was, shame on them because then they're just using a disorder to "mix up" a love story when they should have just told a good love story to begin with.

Of course, I could be completely wrong.

6 comments:

J.D. said...

You're probably not wrong.

brian said...

I love the idea of movie critics who critique movies they never actually see.

Chuck W said...

Brian - Isn't that what Armond White does all the time?

To be honest, I've only seen the trailer too, and I'm inclined to agree with Piper on this one.

PIPER said...

Brian,

There might be something in that. That might be a new feature on Lazy Eye. The laziest of Lazy Eye.

Chuck and J.D.

I really feel like I'm starting a movement here. You guys tell two of your friends and then they tell two of their friends and so on and so forth. We'll get that damn thing shut down before it even began.

Paul Arrand Rodgers said...

But...he has a NASA issue space suit!

elgringo said...

I would have loved if the film didn't glorify his A.S. and instead, subtly alluded to it. We'll see how it plays out in Adam, but from the trailers, it looks to be exactly the way you described it.