Uncle Scoopy's Fun House

Adore

2013

Johnny's comments:

An Australian film of sorts today.

Adore is a romantic drama set for the most part at a small beachside town. The focus is on two women, Roz (Robin Wright) and Lil (Naomi Watts), lifelong friends and neighbours, who both have grown sons and are without partners. Lil is widowed and Roz separated but friendly with Harold (Ben Mendelsohn). After some tempting, Roz begins an affair with Lil's son Ian (Xavier Samuel). When Roz's son Tom (James Frecheville) gets wind of it, he is angry, but decides to go after Lil who eventually reciprocates. Things go well for a while for the two couples, but the two women decide to end the relationships so that the boys can move on, which they do, although Ian is especially unhappy about this as he is very much in love with Roz. Tom moves to the city to take up a dramatic director position and falls for an actress/singer he casts Mary (Jessica Tovey), while Ian reluctantly goes after Hannah (Sophie Lowe). But, there is that lingering sexual tension from the summer that won't seem to go away.

Directed by French director Anne Fontaine (Nathalie..., Coco Avant Chanel), Adore feels very much like a French movie set in Australia and I can't think of a similar Australian movie off the top of my head, although possibly those Bob Ellis movies from the 80s are close (Warm Nights on a Slow Moving Train and the ones he wrote for Paul Cox come to mind). And this is part of the problem. Adore just doesn't feel right, like it's out of place in its surroundings.

The fact that movie jumps significant periods of time without any real change in the setting doesn't sit right either. Surely, people change appearance over a ten year period. It's an interesting attempt at something a little different, as the whole older woman falls for younger man isn't often explored, but as I said, the movie just doesn't feel right and I'm not completely sure why.

The only nudity is a bit of bum from Robin Wright (clip here, collages below):