Adore Blu-ray Review
Michael A. Smith
December 30th, 2013
We first meet Lil and Roz as young, pre-teen, Australian girls, running along the beach and swimming out to their favorite place, where they sneak the occasional nip. It’s obvious that they have a bond. We meet them two decades later. Now grown up, Lil (Watts) and Roz (Wright) are still best pals. As are their 18 year old sons. When Lil’s husband suddenly dies, she and her boy, Ian (Xavier Samuel) often find themselves at Roz’s house, visiting her and her son, Tom (James Frecheville). Roz’s husband, Harold (Ben Mendehlson) has taken a job running the drama department at a prestigious university in Sydney so she and Tom enjoy the company. Roz a little more, if you get my meaning. When she discovers what’s going on Lil isn’t angry. Far from it. In fact, she begins enjoying Tom’s company. Man those Ausies do some wacky stuff!
With a plot that could have been stolen from many a 70’s adult film, “Adore” is a waste of great talent and incredible scenery. There are dozens of films about young men discovering love with an older woman. But two? Two best friends? With each other’s mother? It’s mind boggling that this film was ever green-lit. Accompany this plot with horrible scenes like Lil and Roz chatting at dinner, asking each other how they feel and then smiling knowingly and you have the biggest waste of Academy Award nominees since Cuba Gooding, Jr did SNOW DOGS!
The cast tries their best, which is very admirable considering the material they have to work with. Watts is saddled with the more developed part. Her Lil is hard working but still manages to find plenty of free time to swim out to the same “favorite place” – a floating dock that, with no visible way of anchoring itself, has presumable floated in the same place for 20 years. The magic of living down under. Wright comes across as almost predatory. Staring intensely at Ian…”checking in” on him when he sleeps over. The boys really have nothing to do but look good with their shirts off, which they both do. There is a brief sub-plot that sends Tom to Sydney to direct a project for his pop but really they’re just there to provide the penises. Director Fontaine has no sense of pacing and also must share blame with playwright Christopher Hampton, who must have really needed the money, for the screenplay. That the author of such magnificent works like “Dangerous Liaisons” and “Atonement” had anything to do with this film is beyond comprehension. Things get weirder when the boys find new loves, get married and have children, taking them out with grandma and presumably a world class information on sleeping with your best friends’ mother.
The only positive I could find here is the amazing scenery of the land down under. White sand, blue water and green, well….greenery. All help make the beach everything I thought it would be, which is “fun” to live on and by. OK, I admit, I didn’t need a movie to tell me that.
ADORE BLU-RAY REVIEW
Video: Presented in its original 2:39.1 aspect ratio, the video presentation is the one highlight I’d recommend on this disc. The scenery is beautiful. Wish this had been a travelogue.
Audio: The DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 soundtrack is cleanly mixed, allowing you to hear every word of the incredibly bad dialogue.
There are no extras included.
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