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Adore starring Naomi Watts, Robin Wright & Xavier Samuel: Sexy, Twisted and A Bit Weird

Posted on August 20, 2013 Written by ripitup

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Adore 2013 drama starring Naomi Watts, Robin Wright and Xavier Samuel
Adore 2013 drama starring Naomi Watts, Robin Wright and Xavier Samuel. Image via filmeserialee.blogspot.com

Lil (Naomi Watts) and Roz (Robin Wright) have been best friends and neighbors since they were kids. They are always there for each other, including the death of Lil’s husband. Roz is still married to universtiy lecturer Harold (Ben Mendelsohn), and both women have good-looking boys in their 20s- who are also best friends.

Roz’ seemingly happy marriage gets a bit disrupted when her husband gets a better job in Sydney, and naturally wants both his director son Tom (James Frecheville) and his wife with him. But Roz doesn’t want to leave her gorgeous beach house, her best friend or her gallery.  However she asks for some time to adjust to the idea and make the arrangements.

She never gets to make any arrangements, and she also gives in to temptation by sleeping with Ian (Xavier Samuel), Lil’s son, who is smitten with her.  When Ben sees this, he makes a pass on Lil, and when Lil rejects him, he tells her what he saw.

Lil can’t seem to digest this, but she doesn’t confront Roz. Instead, she gives in to Ben’s attempts. She and Roz later decide that this should be a one-time mistake, and they should stop, but neither women can.

Because they’re all happy despite the weirdness of the situation, they all decide to go along with it. And they are happy for a while, until Ben gets involved with a play in Sydney and meets somebody else.

From then on, all their relationships resemble a bomb, with the timer running…

 

Analyzing Adore  (with some spoilers)

Adore is, by subject matter, a strange movie. What makes it strange to me, is not that two women fall for younger men or two young men fall for older women. And if you forget for a second that these women are best friends who have known the sons since they were babies, it seems only logical that there would be sexual attraction. Xavier Samuel is stunning, and James Frecheville is also quite good-looking, especially in the scenes where he is vulnerable. As for the women, we are talking about two of Hollywood’s most beauiful actresses here. So no, I have nothing against age differences in couples.

What I find appalling is the idea that the women would go for each other’s sons. It’s one thing to meet and fall for a stranger who is older/younger than you. It’s another to sleep with the adult version of the baby whose diaper you probably helped changed at some point.

And even if you can gets past that, there is the fact that Roz is married to a really decent guy. Sure he does get occasionally feel left out, but given how close the women are, it is only natural. As far as he know, he doesn’t lie or cheat or misbehave. He wants to be close to his family. So it is all very unfair to him.

And let’s say we want to give into temptation and hey, it is Ian who makes her happy, there’s how far Roz takes her loyalty to liln. As when Ben screws up, she also ends her relationship with Ian. This really wounds Ian, and he later starts a relationship with a girl around his age.

Guess what? Sexual attraction and addiction like that, and one of our couples haven’t quite stopped their affair. Hence the bomb analogy…

Adore, albeit having a somewhat uneasy theme, is not a boring movie. It has gorgeous scenery, good acting, beautiful actors and gets you thinking. It’s about going after your heart (and hormones) vs. doing the right/expected thing, and how sometimes the right choice isn’t so obvious. It’s about how hurting one person in the short run can turn out to be a good thing in the long run- but hurting another person for their good can backfire big time in the long run.

The right thing would have been not to have started anything. Then it would have been to be honest with all parties involved. Then of course Tom shouldn’t have tried to have his cake and eat it too…

But apart from Harold, nobody really does anything right in the movie. And maybe except from the boys’ wives, who are truly clueless. Then again, Tom’s wife didn’t exactly do a very professional thing when she jumped into bed with her director. That almost never goes right…

So it is full of mistakes and twists you see coming, but you just can’t resist. After all it is a sexy, twisted drama and there’re no surprises. But if this movie proved one thing to me, is that I wouldn’t mind moving to Australia…I’m just saying.

 

Also on Naomi Watts

21 Grams starring Naomi Watts, Sean Penn & Benicio Del Toro

Fair Game starring Naomi Watts & Sean Penn

Naomi Watts Trivia

The Painted Veil with Naomi Watts

The International starring Clive Owen & Naomi Watts

Dangerous Beauty starring Rufus Sewell & Catherine McCormack feat. Naomi Watts

Also on Robin Wright

State of Play starring Russell Crowe, Ben Affleck, Rachel Mcadams and Helen Mirren & Robin Wright

Reviews of 4 Nicholas Sparks Movie Adaptations: A Walk to Remember, Nights in Rodanthe, Message in a Bottle and The Notebook 

Also on Xavier Samuel

The Twilight Saga: Eclipse starring Robert Pattinson, Kristen Stewart, Taylor Lautner, Jackson Rathbone and Xavier Samuel

 

 

 

 

 

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Filed Under: Movies and Actors Tagged With: Adore, adore 2013 movie, adore cast, adore movie review, adore naomi watts, Ben Mendelsohn, james frecheville, Naomi Watts, naomi watts adore, Robin Wright, Xavier Samuel, xavier samuel adore

State of Play starring Russell Crowe, Ben Affleck, Rachel Mcadams and Helen Mirren

Posted on June 3, 2012 Written by ripitup

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Also feat. Robin Wright, Jason Bateman & Jeff Daniels

State of Play starring Russell Crowe, Ben Affleck, Rachel Mcadams and Helen Mirren feat. Robin Wright, Jason Bateman & Jeff Daniels.
State of Play starring Russell Crowe, Ben Affleck, Rachel Mcadams and Helen Mirren feat. Robin Wright, Jason Bateman & Jeff Daniels. Image via movie-list.com

 

Stephen Collins (Ben Affleck) is a smart and successful congressman investigating private “mercenary-providing” companies. His good reputation goes down the drain, however, when his assistant is killed, and it is revealed that they were having an affair.

A grieving Stephen has his career and marriage on the line and the only person who can help him is his old university friend, journalist for the Washington Globe, Cal (Russell Crowe). As he digs more into the story, initially to help Stephen get out of the mess, he stumbles into political agendas, conflicts of interest (including his own) and life-risking situations.

Throw in a full-brown government-related conspiracy, emotional baggage between Cal and Stephen’s wife (Robin Wright), a blogger-turning-into-a-reporter named Della (Rachel McAdams) helping Cal, an ambitious editor (Helen Mirren) getting impatient and caring less about loyalties and manners and more about the juice and you have a very entertaining and gripping political thriller, with the stellar cast as a bonus.

State of Play flows like a well-written novel: slower at times, but only to build up for the more significant upcoming scenes and/or to make things even more complicated.

Why I Loved State of Play

–          All characters are pretty much as grey as it gets, although Rachel McAdams’ character seems to evolve and learn the most.

–          Cal does try to protect his friend from a downfall- but his sense of loyalty hasn’t stopped him from sleeping with his wife in the past.

–          The enthusiastic blogger turns into a reporter who cares about the ethics and the safety of the others more than the seasoned reporters she is working with.

–           It’s great that there is no romance between Cal and Della – in fact, Cal’s personal life is pretty much doomed but he has no intention of doing anything about it. He has a story to write.

–          The more desperate Della and Cal get, the more creative they get in getting their information and evidence.

–          Nothing is ever what it seems- except when it comes to the Cal, Della and Cameron (Helen Mirren) who might make some bad decisions, border on breaking the law and disagree on a lot of things.

–          The journalist-aka the protagonist- is a not a fit, muscular guy who can take care of himself.

–          The cast.

 

 

Well, there are more, but these are the first that came to my mind. It is not perfect, but it is pretty damn good. Rated at 7.2 on IMDB – voted by over 62.000 people. 8/10 from me.

Directed by Kevin MacDonald (Last King of Scotland). Written by Matthew Michael Carnahan (The Kingdom, Lions for Lambs) , Tony Gilroy (Duplicity) and Billy Ray- based on the series by Paul Abbott.

Other Posts on The Cast

Russell Crowe:

A Good Year starring Russell Crowe and Marion Cotillard

A Beautiful Mind starring Russell Crowe, Jennifer Connelly, Ed Harris & Paul Bettany

Ben Affleck:

The Company Men starring Ben Affleck, Tommy Lee Jones, Chris Cooper, Maria Bello & Kevin Costner

Ben Affleck Trivia: 13 Facts About Ben Affleck Movies, His Wife Jennifer Garner and More

Rachel McAdams

Sherlock Holmes starring Robert Downey Jr., Jude Law & Rachel McAdams

The Time Traveler’s Wife starring Eric Bana & Rachel McAdams

Nicolas Sparks vs. Happy Endings: The Notebook starring Rachel McAdams & Ryan Gosling

Wedding Crashers starring Vince Vaughn, Owen Wilson & Rachel McAdams

 

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Filed Under: Movies and Actors Tagged With: ben affleck, helen mirren, Jason Bateman, Jeff Daniels, Rachel McAdams, Robin Wright, russell crowe, state of play, state of play 2009 movie, state of play cast, state of play movie, state of play movie review

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