20140221: Drama Review--Adore

Adore

1. Fundamentals, reception.
1. Australian/French live action feature length film, 2013, rated R, 111 minutes, drama, romantic.  Spoken word is English.
2. IMDB: 6.2/10.0 from 10,589 audience ratings.  Aspect, 2.35; estimated  budget 16 million USD.
3. Rotten Tomatoes: 32% on the meter; 44% liked it from 3,885 audience ratings.
4. Netflix: 3.4/5.0 from 106,649 audience ratings.
5. Written and directed by: Anne Fontaine.
6. Starring: Naomi Watts as Lil, Robin Wright as Roz, Xavier Samuel as Ian, James Frecheville as Tom, Ben Mendelson as Harold, Gary Sweet as Saul.


2. Setup and Plot
1. Lil and Roz have sons, Ian and Tom, about the same age.  Lil's husband passes away, and Harold, father of Roz's Tom is not central in her life.  Fifteen or so years later, the sons are adults who are still living at home.  Harold gets a job far away in Sydney.  Roz seems a bit loath to join him.


2. Through some innocent interactions, Roz and Ian start being attracted to one another, physically speaking.  Similarly, Tom and Lil seem to have a few sparks flying.


3. That's where the evasions start for a while.  Ian and Roz match up first.  Tom and Lil begin a bit more slowly.  Tom tells Lil about Roz and Ian, but Lil does not want to discuss it with Roz.  Eventually they do discuss it, and act like they are going to stop the activity with the sons.  But they don't.


4. The rest of the film is about these four people dealing with these unconventional relationships.  Roz eventually breaks it off with Harold.  Lil has always kept Saul a bit distant.


5. How will this play out over the long term?  There are all sorts of changes along the way; the sons show interest in women their own ages, for instance.


3. Conclusions
1. One line summary: Lifelong women friends have unconventional relationships with each other's sons.
2. Four stars of five


4. Scores
1. Cinematography: 10/10 Very nice indeed.


2. Sound: 9/10 Good and competent; they might have used background music a bit more.


3. Acting: 9/10 Solid performances all around.


4. Screenplay: 8/10 Most of this story was beautifully told.  Unfortunately, the ending could have been dealt with better.