Adam Movie Discussion --SPOILERS!!--

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Guys remember, it's just a movie. If Adam were real he'd probably learn not to go off on rants.
I had always been the quiet one. With some people I did talk about things that were uninteresting to them, but it was easy to go back to saying nothing. I've never had a very strong rote memory anyway.

I thought Hugh's acting was believable up to the point where he had his meltdowns. I suppose that's got to be really hard for an NT to act out. Although maybe it was because I had never watched anyone with AS go from calm to angry in such a short time. Do we really look like that?

I sort of interpreted Beth not moving with him because she had to be with her family. I dunno, perhaps I interpreted that wrong.

That's something for me to ask my husband. He said I have gotten that upset and I said "Really?" but I don't go pushing things off of tables and shelves. It's just amazing how I can watch a movie on AS and not realize I come off that way until my own husband says he saw lot of me in Adam and he could relate to the movie about the relationship they had. But he said Adam was worse than me and my symptoms aren't that extreme. I wonder if that is what they mean by mild moderate and severe?

Beth didn't want to move with Adam because she didn't want him to depend on her. I guess she wanted him to be independent than depending on her. Also the fact he said he needed someone to depend on than wanting to spend the rest of his life with her. It sounded like he wanted to use her than wanting her for her. That's how she probably interpreted it. It be a like a man saying to me "I need someone who can work and pay the bills so I can have a roof over my head." I would think he doesn't really want to be with me and doesn't really care and he wants a meal ticket. That's all he cares about.
But of course we both know Adam loved Beth and he enjoyed being with her and he didn't really mean that when he said it. He used the wrong words.

Oh yes, quite a lot lately.
It has kind of been the source of my recent muteness.

And Beth said: "f**k Asperger's you're a f*****g child."
Not baby.

I suppose that was it. We knew that Adam did love her but didn't know how to explain it. I come off that way many times.
It also reminds me of a Simpsons episode where Homer said he needed Marge for 'complete and utter dependence.' That was enough to save that marriage. I suppose in cartoon world it works.

My husband found the meltdown kind of improbable. I thought it worked because there was obviously a lot of history behind it.

I'm not exactly sure how I felt about this movie.
For one thing, was it just me or was Adam a little TOO Autistic? While I was watching him I just kept worrying that that's how I actually act. But I don't. I'm not great with other people but generally I can function fairly alright with them. He just seemed completely disabled. Perhaps they hyped it up for more drama, but that doesn't help because it might give the wrong impression to NTs.
I have mixed feelings about how it ended. On one hand I'm annoyed at Beth's reasons for dumping Adam. It seemed she loved him in spite of his AS when the truth is he wouldn't be himself without it. On the other it's clear that Adam has grown from his experience and also he made significant progress without a parent holding his hand, which makes it clear that we are fully capable of making it on our own.
I also didn't really find the meltdown scene convincing. Maybe I failed to pick up on other things, but I didn't think what was going on merited something that extreme.

I thought the movie was pretty accurate to me. My husband said that it was a pretty fair representation of what it's like living with me, too. It was so close that it was actually uncomfortable to watch at times for me. The exception is that I'm female, so I'm not as prone to have meltdowns where I tear the house apart. I'm also more passive in conversation. I know that no one wants to hear about my special interest for a long period of time, so I won't rant... most of the time. However, that doesn't mean that I know what else to talk about, so that means that I often don't talk at all. At a social gathering that could be misconstrued all sorts of ways, and be just as damaging as me ranting.

My husband said that he found it unlikely that he'd have gone to California alone. Based on where he was at in the movie, and even on my own experiences I'd have to say it is, too.

I, also thought some of the deleted scenes were the best, and most realistic ones. I wish they'd left them in there.

I didn't like the movie at all!

The plot just pisses me off: They have a romantic relationship, but he's just to much of an alien to appreciate her feminine charms. So they break up, and she uses a very personal part of their relationship for a children's book without his permission. But hey, everything is A-OKAY because he's got Aspergers and having Aspergers means that people can just use you for book ideas without even asking first. WTF

That being said, I thought the portrayal of aspergers is good, but I don't like the "But you have autism so every crappy thing I do to you is justified!" aspect of it. also, I really want there to be a movie where a relationship between an autistic person and somebody who isn't is successful.

Just my two cents.

I thought the movie blew Aspergers out of proportion. I am HFA, and even I am higher functioning than Adam in that movie. I also thought they killed the ending. Even in HBO's Temple Grandin movie....they just blow autism out of proportion. If anything, they should make a movie that more accurately represents people on the spectrum. I suppose that's Hollywood for you though. *sigh*

Good film, not too exaggerated, realistic, fun film too, crappy ending though.

The movie Adam reminds me a lot of myself, and my daughter who is a psychologist agrees because she gave me the movie. But I am a lot worse than Adam. Like Adam I share my interest about space travel to Saturn with people who are not very interested. But I quickly explain to my audience that any manned mission to Saturn would require a series of thousands of atomic explosions in order to propel the rocket. I then show my you tube video of an actual launch of a model atomic rocket that used conventional explosives so that people would get the idea of how an atomic rocket worked. Needless to say this freaks out a lot of people.

So I decided to talk with my Uncle who is supposedly pro-nuke and a former public relations man for the Palo Verde nuclear power station. After I explained the concept of the technology that could colonize Mars I saw a look of horror on my Aunts face when I told them that only nuclear explosions could propel the rocket. My uncle explained to me that plasma from a nuclear fusion reaction would have to be contained by an electro magnetic force field as there is no known material that could handle the heat of the plasma. However my atomic rocket never tries to contain the explosion but rather uses a steel pusher plate in order to ride the surf of the atomic mushroom cloud.

I don't think you get mushroom clouds in space.

However, you're talking about "Project Orion," yes?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Or ... pulsion%29

I thought her not going with him was more about her, not him. I thought she didn't get the answer she wanted and was afraid she'd become a caregiver, but I don't know if that's what Adam meant. I don't think it was.

In any case, she obviously still had feelings for him if she wrote a book about him, right?

I guess most folks don't really want disabled people (including Aspies) in their lives. I really felt for the guy - if she'd meant to leave him for a college course, she ought to have made that plain before she put all that work into getting into a relationship with him. For me, the couple comes first, before any vocational stuff, unless BOTH partners are happy with the arrangement. Especially with such a new rerlationship where the separation could easily prove fatal. This is what the Relate people say about the importance of spending time together:
Time together is, to a relationship, what water is, to a plant. It's how a relationship is nurtured and cared for. It's the stuff that makes it stronger and helps it to grow. To stay connected as a couple, you need to feed your relationship with time. Time to keep in touch with what's happening in your everyday lives. Time to share your hopes and dreams as well as your fears and failings. And time to have fun.

Well talking about the romanting aspects of the movie and exagerrating it as a source of inspiration for my own novel. Can you imagine nuclear astronaut Adam having a romantic relationship with a Doctor who is an environmentalist and talking about lighting off atomic bombs in the Earth's atmosphere so he can go on his cowboy trip to Saturn? This idea would be very obscene especially for a Doctor who has experience treating cancer patients caused by radioactive fallout. The Doctor's only ethical choice would be to threaten to end the relationship so Adam would have to choose between her and Saturn.

I think she was hoping for an NT declaration of love and Adam gave her an Aspie one. I thought it sad that she didn't recognize that he truly did love her, but perhaps it was for the best in the long run.