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
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
Also on Xavier Samuel
