Question for anybody that seen the movie Adam

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I just watched Adam, the movie with the autistic guy. He seems to have much more severe traits than I because I understood most of the social cues that he missed. I feel like he should be portrayed as a severe HFA instead of aspergers. I tend to miss subtle social cues but not basic elementary cues. A example is when she needed helped up the stairs with her stuff, Adam just stayed sitting down and didn't help her. I would've known that she needed help and helped her. Does anybody feel relate and how would you rate your traits compared to him?

Last edited by alakazaam on 24 Apr 2013, 3:57 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Even though he's Hollywood's exaggerated version of Asperger's, I'd be considered Adam Lite compared to him.

I do a lot better deciphering social cues in movies than I do IRL. And Hollywood is not really known for understating things, so it's probably just their usual extreme manipulation happening. Just like all the media reports now about how 'brilliant' & 'exceptional' autists are...and sometimes I think it's because they have such low expectations of anyone that's neurologically different.

"Wow, you don't wear a diaper! You're brilliant!" National news event... {savage sarcasm}

No, I don't relate to Adam's traits. However, I know someone else who reminds me of Adam but he is not as severe as Adam but he does remind me of him in so many ways. Sometimes he tells me that he feels awkward around me because he finds me so much more high functioning.

Then again, you know Hollywood will tend to stereotype anything no matter how the dice is tossed. They also seem to do that with Sheldon Cooper's character as well where he is made out to have severe HFA with OCD traits. What Hollywood needs to realize and understand is that Autism is such a wide spectrum.

Other things that I noticed about the movie is that the character Beth was made out to be this cold hearted NT who does not know how to deal with AS. In truth, not all NTs are nasty to people on spectrum. Some are very sweet and let you grow on your own while others are harsh like Beth. (Either way, I did not like her character as I thought she was a brat).

I think I have some classic AS traits that would be considered an exaggeration in movies. I did think he was exaggerated but he was far worse than I was. The part where Beth tells him she is going to bring up her groceries now, everyone laughed and I didn't see the humor. My husband had to explain it to me. I never knew when people tell m they are going to be doing something now, it's a hint they want me to help them. But at the end he appeared normal and he improved that fast in a year? I have also said some shocking things even aspies would probably know not to say and they would probably think it's just being an as*hole and stupid, not autism. I have gotten upset in the past for being lied to but I never reacted the way Adam did to it. He just started pushing things off tables and it scared Beth so she left him. I am not as organized as he was and not as clean. His apartment looked like a display in a magazine and that was what I was like as a kid so I was always cleaning but I am not that much of a clean freak anymore.

What annoyed me about Adam is that the producers seemed to try to throw every possible Aspergian trait into one character, even if they were mutually incompatible and despite that fact that most of us don't them all. So the result was that in some areas he seemed highly intelligent, wise, and even witty, in other areas he seemed helpless and severely developmentally disabled. I find it hard to believe that he could be able to interact as well as he could and have decent understanding of human nature, and yet be completely blind to social cues and the common signals. I mean most of us who are smart enough to maintain some degree of independence and to attend college can also teach ourselves those social skills by observation and experience. I made the excuse for the character that maybe his father kept him very sheltered and Adam is flounderng now that he is on his own... but he really doesn't appear to be that lost, just naive beyond belief, and we aren't shown the relationship between him and his father to know that.

It was still a better portrayal than Rainman.

Amen to that.