I don’t get out to the movies much anymore; there just aren’t many movies that I want to see. Back when I was in my late 30s and early 40s I dated some women, and thus became quite a movie maven. The movies all started blending into one another, though. So, for the past 15 years or so, I’ve rarely gotten out to a theater; a film really has to be special for me to go see it. <\/p>\n
(I’m not into renting movies either; if there’s a movie I do want to see, I would rather have the social experience of seeing the film with others, even if they’re strangers. Seeing a movie in a theater is an important ritual, and every now and then it’s good for me to participate in some kind of mythological social event. Every now and then.)<\/p>\n
I recently decided to find out if the movie \u201cAdam\u201d<\/a> was special enough for me. I’d read some reviews and knew that it was a romance story involving a young guy with Aspergers Syndrome. I only found out what Aspergers was about 5 years ago, and since then I’ve wondered if I myself have it. Some of it sounds very familiar (e.g., intense interests in technical subjects, difficulty in reading unspoken social signals from others, avoidance of eye contact, formation of routine life-habits that when disturbed cause angst); but other typical \u201cAspie\u201d traits don’t (monotone unemotional voice, frequent repetitive motions, avoidance of loud sounds, no tolerance and understanding when other people tell white lies or half-truths, general lack of awareness regarding others’ feelings). I’ve taken some of those \u201cAre You An Aspie\u201d tests<\/a> on the web, and what they tell me is not surprising: that I’m half-and-half, lying on the hazy border between Aspergers and \u201cneurotypicality\u201d. So perhaps I’m a half-ass Aspie, or a \u201chalf-Asp\u201d.<\/p>\n I honestly don’t know anyone else whom I can pin down with Aspergers, so I thought it would be interesting to see a movie version of an Aspie. The actor who portrayed Adam (Hugh Darcy) made a lot of effort to study Aspergers<\/a> and spent time with young people who definitively do have it (according to their shrinks, anyway). Various web sources, including one citing Aspergers expert Dr. Tony Attwood<\/a>, indicate that Darcy did a convincing job of portraying an Aspie \u2013 or more accurately, a credible version of an Aspie (there is no \u201cgold standard Aspie\u201d who defines the condition; relative to many \u201cpersonality disorders\u201d, Aspergers is harder to define and thus covers a broad range of behavioral traits and temperaments). So, I figured it was time to get a ten dollar bill out and put aside two hours for a theater visit.<\/p>\n Overall I enjoyed Adam and I’m glad that I broke out of my anti-movie rut for a day (even though it was hard; Aspies and even half-Asps like me have a hard time breaking out of ruts). It’s the kind of movie that I’d like to see again (but that will have to wait, as I went on the last day it was showing in my town; there were only five other people watching Adam that day, so obviously it is not a blockbuster hit). As to what it told me about myself \u2013 well, not too much. I certainly can say that I was never quite like that; I’m no social butterfly, but even in my youth I had more \u201csocial grace\u201d than Adam. And by the same token I never had Adam’s better qualities either, i.e. his clumsy innocence and devotion to truth. <\/p>\n But then again, I really enjoyed Adam’s babbling on and on with Beth, his new love-interest, about the formation of the universe. I didn’t want him to stop. I’d really like to have a conversation with the dude about this. When he got all upset with the lawyer handling his late father’s estate about having to move from his father’s co-op apartment, I remembered how upset I got about possibly having to move from my own little apartment this November (luckily I got a year’s extension on that). In general, his life mostly made sense to me, although I can see better than he what other people are thinking and feeling. And yet, my own \u201csocial radar\u201d only goes so far; I clearly miss a lot of signals, or realize them only too late to do anything about them. It’s the old \u201cconnotation versus denotation\u201d problem of human interaction; a problem to Aspies, anyway.<\/p>\n The credibility of the plot was a bit strained, but not bad by Hollywood standards. The ending was bittersweet enough. If you plan to see Adam and don’t want the ending spoiled, stop reading right here. But I myself don’t think you’ll go to see this movie for suspense and plot twists. Adam’s new girlfriend has to make a decision whether to follow him to California, where he found a great new job after getting traumatically canned from his job in New York; or to stay in the East and help her mother after her wheeler-dealer father gets sent to a federal prison for financial fraud. Beth focuses on her own needs, her desire to find someone she can truly share emotions with. She concludes that Adam is not the guy for that. She asked him why he wanted her to go with him, and he said that he loved her; when asked to elaborate, it was clear that he loved her like a mother, as someone to take care of him in a scary new situation. <\/p>\n OK, so maybe Beth was right, despite her self-absorption. Beth’s own mother suggested that perhaps she should do the noble thing and play Mother Theresa to Adam, just as she herself was standing by her dishonest husband who, in addition to getting nailed on federal charges, had also recently had an affair with another woman. But not many young people are ready to give up their emotional dreams like that (or old people either). And of course, there’s a happy-enough ending, both despite and because of Beth. Adam does well in California and matures a bit, showing a bit more comfort and grace around others. <\/p>\n Adam and Beth had a short, conflicted and intense relationship, one that was doomed from the start; “star-crossed”, appropriately enough, given Adam’s obsession with astronomy. But they were both better off for it (on Beth’s side, she used Adam’s interest in the nocturnal raccoons in Central Park as inspiration for her first published children’s book; of course she named the lead raccoon \u201cAdam\u201d). <\/p>\n Yea, I’ve been there; short, intense and tragic relationships that still leave you better off, although you won’t know it for a while. But Adam went a bit further than I did; he made it to \u201cgeek heaven\u201d (a high-tech job surrounded by lots of other geeky people like him), and from there made his accommodations with the majority of non-geeks. I tried to stay in the \u201cneurotypical world\u201d to do some good (law school, grantwriting for non-profits, government work), and got pushed aside. I didn’t do that much good either (although they say that you never see the good you do).<\/p>\n