Adam review

Cutesy raccoon imagery and kooky astronomical asides aren’t enough to charm your gaze away from the core phoniness of Max Mayer’s low-key, autism-complicated romantic dramedy.

Rose Byrne is likeable enough as Beth, a worldly wise, well-to-do teacher whose new Manhattan neighbour is Adam (Hugh Dancy, again likeable) – an electronic engineer living alone after his dad’s death, whose geeky, data-spouting manner is a symptom of Asperger’s syndrome.

Mayer fumbles the script-work needed for the relationship to convince, often making Beth look more naïve about Asperger’s than a teacher should be. Instead, he offers marshmallow movie-moment contrivances – like a scene involving Adam’s home planetarium – before losing the plot on attention-sapping subplots.

Gently played gags include a well-timed jab at Forrest Gump, but the cookie-cutter characterisations, homily-heavy script and over-reliance on maudlin musical prompts are all too chocky-box icky in their own right.