I was really unwell the other week with food poisoning (bad chicken) and, as you do when you’re feeling like total rubbish, I lay on the sofa like a sack of potatoes, cocooned myself in a blanket and watched back-to-back movies on Netflix. After a nostalgic viewing of The Breakfast Club (whatever happened to Judd Nelson?) and a failed attempt to sit through Drinking Buddies (don’t judge me, I was poorly), my eye was caught by a digital poster for a film titled Adore: four people lying side-by-side on a swimming pontoon adrift in a bright blue ocean.

A quick look at the film’s information listing revealed an intriguing synopsis:

 

In this seaside drama adapted from a novella by Nobel Prize winner Doris Lessing, two lifelong friends who fall in love with each other’s teenage sons must carry out their affairs in relative secrecy.

 

The trailer (above) was just as compelling.

I plumped up the pillows on the sofa and settled down to watch.

I am an absolute sucker for beautiful cinematography and on that score alone, I think I would have been inclined would have given Adore a thumbs up, however, I was gratified to find that I hadn’t selected a brainless, gratuitous sex drama. In addition to the film’s visual appeal, the actors were believable in their roles, Robin Wright in particular (although I’m not entirely sure Naomi Watts looked quite old enough to be the mother of a teenage boy), and the unconventional story utterly riveting.

But – and this is a big BUT – I was left feeling incredibly, incredibly confused and uncomfortable by my emotional reaction to it. Without giving away the ending, I found myself, rightly or wrongly, really hoping that one of the romances that developed over the course of the film would survive.

Cue feelings of guilt.

How could I possibly think that when what happens goes entirely against my moral compass? Why didn’t I have the same reaction to this film that I did to Alison Nutting’s book, Tampa, which I had to stop reading after two chapters because it made me feel physically ill? Granted the intentions of the characters in the two narratives are quite different (as are the ages of the boys) but, ultimately, their actions are, at the very least, kissing cousins.

I’m usually pretty good at compartmentalising erotica. Placing it in a box in my head and understanding that sexual fantasy is very different from reality. But I just couldn’t make the leap with this film. It seemed to sit in a strange no-man’s land that won’t quite allow me to have the reaction to it that I wanted and felt I should have.

Since watching it, I’ve done a bit of digging. The film premiered at Sundance in 2013 and it’s intriguing to watch director, Anne Fontaine, describe it to interviewers. In nearly every clip I’ve seen, she uses the following phrase (or variations thereof) when asked what it’s about:

 

“It’s a love story.”

 

I agree. It is. That’s really hard for me to admit that, but, ultimately, it’s true.

Hearteningly, I’m not the only one who has had an emotionally confused reaction to Adore. Alex Koehne of Twitch Filmdescribes it as “provocative and troubling, sensual and scandalous”. It doesn’t shy away from asking us some pretty difficult questions, not least of which is what our reactions would be if the gender roles in the film were reversed. As one commenter succinctly put it:

 

“In regards to the movie trailer I just watched, reverse the sex of each person. How does that go down with people?”

 

I haven’t read Doris Lessing’s short story The Grandmothers upon which Adore is based. But I intend to. Will I have the same response to it? Or will my perception change? Incidentally, Lessing confirmed to Anne Fontaine that The Grandmothers was actually based on a true story. Chew on that for a moment.

In the end, I think Alex Koehne sums it up best in the closing paragraph of his Sundance review:

 

“Two Mothers pushes its audience into intellectual rabbit holes. It provokes the viewer sexually and emotionally and philosophically. If you want to see a movie that treats you like an adult, that is full of talented actors and locations that are as easy on the eyes as the subject matter is uncomfortable and mind mending, then this is a film for you.”

 

Has anyone else seen Adore? And, if you’ve watched it, what was your reaction?

 

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