Adam Movie Discussion --SPOILERS!!--

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Saw this movie before my diagnosis. It's funny because I understood what he was saying about space, but my wife and I never drew a conclusion to me being Aspie from this movie.

At the time, I thought it right that they not end up together. I thought that people like him were incapable of the deep love felt by NTs. When I got my diagnosis my first thought was to drive my wife away, as I felt that I didn't love her like NTs love people. In time I came to realize that yes, I might not love her like another could, by which I mean the same depth or intensity as an NT might feel (Aspie amygdala's have far fewer neurons than NTs), but I was making her happy and I am content. That's love enough for me.

Even the unmanned mission that Adam liked to always talk about was very controversial. Although not powered by atomic bombs the Saturn Cassini mission did have a nuclear isotope power generator that contained enough plutonium that could have caused serious contamination if the rocket launch failed. Adam's girlfriend if she were an environmentalist would have demanded that Adam stop talking about this mission if he wanted to continue the relationship. But Adam's interests could have been so obsessive that he might have rather insisted even if it meant the end of the relationship. Although I believe Adam knows in his heart that gaining Saturn is not worth losing your soul mate nevertheless Adam may feel that the principle of his right to freedom of speech is a right too sacred to give up.

Sorry to dig up this old thread, but I just watched this movie for the first time a few nights ago.

Two things

1. I'm tired of movies/shows that leave me feeling as if I've just been bombarded with product placement for something called "Asperger's". Productions like these remind me of infomercials.

2. The character of Beth was wholly unbelievable. On what planet does someone like Beth consider, even fleetingly, someone like Adam to be "relationship material"? She's just not dysfunctional enough. The story might have been feasible if Beth had been closer to the edge OR Adam had been less severely affected.

Please boycott this film. It associates Aspies with paedophilia.

[Moved from General Autism Discussion to Television, Film, and Video]

I saw this movie yesterday night. I thought it would be a good movie to watch for Valentine's Day, but it kind of made me sad. He didn't end up with Beth.

He did have the strength to move, and to start his life anew somewhere else without her. He got the job, he made friends, and he started to become more social. She wasn't there for any of that, it was all him.

I understand that he didn't give her what she wanted to hear verbally, but his actions indicated that he loved her dearly. He went out of his way to work on and better himself. Isn't that what love is?

I've kinda sorta noticed that Adam isn't the only movie that's about romance+autistics. It was also in Mozart & The Whale, and another movie that was advertised here on WP some years ago.

While I guess it's good that movies like these show that >gasp!< autistics can indeed harbour feelings of romance... I'm not sure that I like that so many recent movies about autism or Asperger's syndrome, have to be romantic stories.

What makes me uncomfortable is that the portrayals don't really pertain to me. At least not spot on. And people are very assumptive.

I think that a documentary on Asperger's and romance would be a more interesting thing to watch. And maybe a romance that hasn't failed. That would be nice.

It's interesting that whenever a movie about characters with AS is discussed around here, it draws a wide range of responses. A lot of people will heap praise upon Mozart and the Whale for having an accurate portrayal, and an equal number will criticize it and say that it's not accurate at all. Same with Adam and Mary and Max. I found Adam to be more accurate than Mozart for me, but I've encountered plenty of people who had the exact opposite reaction.

While I like it when I can recognise parts of myself in an autistic character on-screen, I aso appreciate the differences, because those should enforce that the character in question is fleshed out in its own right. What I mean by this, is that a fictional character shouldn't be limited to their autism (or any disorder they might have for that matter), because that quickly makes them stereotypes.

At the same time, if autism or Asperger's syndrome is the core theme of the movie, like in "Adam" and "Mozart", it's only appropriate that there's a lot of focus on a given character's ASD. Just like ANY OTHER fictional character, they can never be fully realistic. That isn't the point of fiction, in any fictional story -even semi-biographic ones- all characters are allegorical on a certain level.

The trick with movies like Adam is to portray an autistic character as a non-stereotypical, multi-faceted character, of which one facet (albeit an important one) is their ASD. I'd like to think that Adam succeeded in this, although it could have been improved on.

Reason I'm not looking for "myself" in fiction that features ASD characters any more, is that I will invariably be disappointed exactly BECAUSE I'm looking too hard. Whereas, when I watch some characters who aren't necessarily intended to be autistic, I can recognise a whole deal, because the "autistic" label isn't on them. If they were outright stated to be autistic in-story, and it were a main issue in their storyline, it might push me away from them.