Adore DVD Blurb by Shale December 21, 2013 This movie which had limited release in theaters in September was quite intriguing to me but it played in another city across the county - too far to bike and too many transfers on Metro Bus. So, I waited until the DVD release and just watched it last nite. The movie is about love affairs between older women with men young enuf to be their sons. That in itself is not unusual - my interest in the movie was because I had such an affair for a couple of years when I was a young man - but these young men were the sons of the other woman who had been very close friends since childhood. The movie opens with a couple of girls running to the beach in subtropical Australia and swimming to a floating platform offshore. (This platform is a constant thru the whole movie) It is here where rapid successions of scenes play out their lives, becoming young women then young women with sons who grow up together almost as brothers in nearby houses with their second mum next door. Then the scene is of the two boys growing up on surfboards, taking a wave as boys and emerging as beautiful young men; Ian (Xavier Samuel - 30) Lil's (Naomi Watts - 45) son and Tom (James Frecheville - 22) Roz' (Robin Wright - 47) son. The two women are lying on the beach watching their sons surfing. Roz comments, "God Lil, look at that" Lil, replies, "Did we do that? We must have done. Roz, "We certainly did. Lil, "They're beautiful. They're like young gods. Amazing" Roz, "Yeah, we did alright." I guess that is a turning point that forty-something women are still turned on by the beauty of 20-year-old men, even if those beautiful men are their own sons. Lil has been widowed for years and Roz' husband is about to leave her, so the two women and their adult sons are left in their secluded beach houses, becoming a more insular family than ever. In fact the women are so close that there is conjecture that they are lesbians. Ian is the first to make advances toward his second mum, Roz. First just low-key flirting then that first embrace and kiss, which Roz wants to resist but can't. Ian & Roz Get Intimate This is soon discovered by Tom who then goes for payback by coming on to Lil. She does more resisting but doesn't hold out and eventually they too are sharing a bed. Tom & Lil in Bed So, now our four adults know about each others' relationship and they accept it for the fun it is. The two lifelong best friend women figure that the young men will tire of it, become bored and move on but meanwhile enjoy the intimacy and sex. The Family That Lays Together ... Of course the story does get more complicated and does have conflict. The story is adapted from Doris Lessing’s novel The Grandmothers so that should give you a clue as to where it could go. The women are concerned with their aging, more self-conscious of it than the young men and the young men - well, that's what they are and can be unpredictable and flighty. I did like the movie, liked how it eventually played out after the conflicts resolve. In a way it is a good study of a very common occurrence, now called Cougars & Jacks. However, I still have a problem with the closeness of all parties. When I had affairs with older women, we met as co-workers and tho I was quite young, I was a fully and independently formed adult man. Still, getting intimate with a woman older than my mother, who had kids my age, part of the fun was a niggling feeling that it was taboo. This however, with two women who have been close since childhood like sisters, and whose sons were raised as brothers or at least first cousins where they each thot of the other woman as their second mum, just drips of incest. I think of that discovery about Kibbutz in Israel where they found that communally raised kids could not countenance marrying someone from their own Kibbutz but had to meet mates from outside. They were unrelated but raised as brothers and sisters and there must be some natural incest aversion that kicked in. I would think that would be a problem with this story that would go beyond the rationale that they were unrelated adults. So there you have it. I waited 4 months to see this movie and it was worth it. You can decide if you want to take this fascinating trip into the unconventional - which is pretty much my experience.
This movie really triggered remembrances of my affair with "Mrs. Robinson" in 1968 (the movie The Graduate came out that year). When Ian made his first pass at Roz, I could feel it after 45 years as if I were doing it. Mrs. R and I first toyed at the possibility of having an affair. I was the security guard and she the switchboard operator at a hospital. I hung out in the switchboard room and we would take breaks together, then drinks after work, then finally that first kiss that showed we were both daring. Just as with the women in this movie, she was self-conscious of her wrinkles and sags, especially showing them in front of a kid with smooth skin. But I didn't notice any of that in the excitement of just being with such a mature, knowledgeable and HOT MILF. What really brot it home to me in this movie is that Robin Wright has the same facial bone structure that Mrs. R had and with the little lines it was just like looking into the face of my former lover. Strange how relative age is. I am now the old man and Robin Wright is a young woman to me - and yet I can still somehow in my memory think of her as Mrs. R., who BTW if she is still alive would have turned 88 this past November. Here's to you Mrs. Robinson
Cute, Shirtless Young Actors Gonna post these fairly hi-res pix I found of Xavier Samuel & James Frecheville Shirtless while looking for production pix of this movie. I know several of my friends here will appreciate it. Xavier Samuel has the most intriguing mouth. Would he kiss you - or bite you?
