Published by the Alternate Dream
Adore
Australia-France 2013.
Directed by Anne Fontaine
My rating: 1.5 out of 5
Adore has some lusciously sexy moments that you (almost) come to adore. This is not very hard when the film mostly consists of Naomi Watts and Robin Wright having passionate sex with one another’s Adonis-looking gorgeous teenage sons in the background of a breathtakingly beautiful Aussie bay. My favorite is the first time that Naomi Watts character decides to give in to the approaches of her friend’s teenage son. Filmmakers should watch it to see how you can make a lustful sexy scene.
At this and few other points during the film you keep hoping that it will be somehow rescued. But it ultimately falls flat on the face. The film is based on a story by the Nobel-winning Doris Lessing who is known for her great tragic tales and characters. Yet, not only none of the characters in Adore were built enough to be great or memorable, whenever they uttered deep-sounding dialogue they were met with roaring laughter from the audience, a scene likely to be replicated even when shown to more generous audiences. Maybe if the director had try to make this more of a comedy, she would have been able to tell a more laudable tale. But, no. Tragically, the film tries to go for a tragedy and it fails glaringly.
A tragedy that makes you laugh might be still better than an unfunny comedy. At least there are many jokes you could tell as you exit the cinema. My personal moral lesson from the story was that you don’t leave Naomi Watts for anybody else and that you should practice safe sex to avoid unwanted pregnancy.
