Adoration (Anne Fontaine, 2013) aka Adore (US), aka Two Mothers; wr. Christopher Hampton, novella Doris Lessing, The Grandmothers; Robin Wright, Naomi Watts, Xavier Samuel, James Frecheville, Ben Mendelsohn, Sophie Lowe; family melodrama; Sundance; Australian release Nov 2013
Peter Travers:
Watts and Wright are two of the best and most beautiful actresses anywhere. And it's no hardship watching them writhe around with naked boys. But to what purpose? Director Anne Fontaine takes a solemn approach that won't quit. Working from a script by the gifted Christopher Hampton (Dangerous Liaisons, Atonement), who seems to have traded his wit for a pay check, Fontaine manages the trick of making sex joyless. Like porn. Then she tops that by draining her film of variety, longing and feminist insight. Rolling Stone.
Kyle Smith:
... a silly piece of soft-focus smut set in Australia [that] takes itself so seriously that I couldn't stop laughing… I have no idea why such strapping young men would be so desperate for sex as to hook up with a couple of museum artefacts they've known all their lives, but this hokey soap views contrivance as a small price to pay for lush mommy fantasy. The New York Post.
Christy Lemire:
Adore is, as my late mother would say in describing Sidney Sheldon novels, 'good trash.' RogerEbert.com
All quotations above from Don Groves, 'Watts, Wright romantic drama unloved in the US', IF.
Garry Gillard | New: 10 September, 2013 | Now: 24 November, 2023