The Australian film “Adore”, by Anne Fontaine, takes itself
seriously, with coastal scenery and schmaltzy music. The premise, based on the novel “The
Grandmothers” by Doris Lessing, has two middle aged moms (Naomi Watts and Robin
Wright), neighbors in a bucolic sunny setting, falling in love with the
opposing young adult sons (James Frecheville and Xavier Samuel).
The sons even get married and have kids, adding to the
family tension. The two young men seem
to fight a bit – there is an ocean scene that recalls “The Talented Mr. Ripley”,
and even tease the boundaries of homoeroticism but never really go down that
path. The two older women go little farther, however, into lesbianism to
supplement their torrid heterosexual lives.
This could be a film where “Anything Goes”.
Unfortunately, the narrative is too choppy, the scene cuts
to abrupt and truncated. The movie, at
100 minutes, seems to have a lot of deleted scenes. Maybe director’s commentary with the DVD will
help.
The film does go into Tom’s acting and directing career
toward the end, but doesn’t do as much with Ian, despite his serious injury,
which heals all too quickly and completely to have even happened.
This is also a fantasy world where young men have a grand total of zero chest
hairs.
The official site (from Exclusive Media) is here. That’s an ironic name for a distributor.
I saw this at the Avalon in Washington, the only theater
showing it here. There was a small
crowd, but the Redskins provided competition (while losing).
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