Adoration (2019) User Reviews

Not Sure About This One...

[derek-duerden · 6/10 · 18 December 2020]

I've not seen any of the director's any other films - but was intrigued by the synopsis and Kermode's introduction on BFI Player (which is where I watched it).

However, I'm now really not sure I would recommend it. On the positive side, it's nicely shot and starts very well, setting up some interesting characters, including the two central (boy and girl) roles. There's also some sotto-voce mystery elements - such as: is she really disturbed or just "put away" for family convenience?; what's the real nature of the relationship between him and his mother?; are some of the scenes in the woods real or imagined? etc.

However, frustratingly for me, rather than address these questions, this instead turns in the direction of a "young Badlands" with an increasing level of implausibility - and sometimes the level of acting doesn't really counter this enough to hold the mood (e.g. her reaction to the hen). There is also no apparent consequence to their trail of destruction - which made me think that there must be some allegorical dimension that I was missing... and then it ended. Twice.

So - if you are a fan of films that *don't* tie up all the loose ends and are happy to just go along for the ride - then you may enjoy this, or you may not. I'm not sure I did.

Sailing down the golden river

[ulicknormanowen · 6/10 · 22 August 2021]

The movie begins with a quotation from Boileau -Narcejac ,two writers famous for having written Clouzot's "les diaboliques " and Hitchcock' s "vertigo " .Let's be straight about this : the film has nothing to do with them ,even to the lesser extent , with the possible exception of the would be wicked uncle's setup .

The escape on the river may hint at a teenage "night of the hunter" ,but directing ,which is rather dull does not follow suit .The screenplay is a curate's egg : best thing is the character of the girl :is she that much sincere? Does that uncle who wants to get rid of her and latch onto her heritage really exist (the same goes for the kind grandpa ) ? Does she suffer from paranoia , seeing enemies everywhere from a couple of harmless tourists to a man who might be a pedophile to a simple hen "my uncle's spy" ? Her fits of hysteria may incline the viewer to favor the second hypothesis.

As for the boy, the character is thoroughly plausible in the first sequences : the episode of the wounded bird does not lack poetry or emotion, two qualities which would descends into the banality of the initiation of a virgin lad by an older girl;nevertheless,their relationship ,apart from the expected sex side , is more ambiguous than it appears first : the boy ,every now and then ,is afraid of his mate:perhaps a metaphor for the fear of the first time,most likely some kind of sin with a new Eve who takes her to a paradise (see the last sequences ,superbly filmed ) where a latent menace hangs on them.

Let The Right One Out

[dungeonstudio · 7/10 · 1 January 2022]

A young boy whose mother works at a nearby asylum comes across a girl recently admitted. He sees her a few times, only to be scolded. Yet tells why she's there is so her family can get a large inheritance she has been left with. The boy aids her escape. And in doing so, cause an accidental death, becoming fugitives. Evading capture, they come by kind strangers, and the boy sees the girl is not mentally sound as he thought. Yet affection keeps him trapped. So not quite as mysterious and horrific as the Swedish classic 'Let The Right One In', this film somewhat follows in it's footsteps. Hard not to feel pity for both the young characters, even as the girl unravels on the poor boy. Especially when they come across kind and unwitting strangers. Unlike Let The Right One In, where I felt a kind of joy that the two would continue on, and he would help her survive. Adoration really left me sad, knowing that the two couldn't go on much longer. But is clever in that it doesn't give full closure. Maybe becoming the next Mickey and Mallory of Natural Born Killers. Or to be soon caught, charged and separated? And the two seem fully aware of either. A strange but sweet coming of age story. And a realistic look at some serious mental illness far beyond Bennie & Joon.

crazy beauty ratio

[SnoopyStyle · 7/10 · 4 February 2022]

Paul and his mother move to her new workplace, a high end psychiatric hospital. He falls for beautiful disturbed patient Gloria who convinces him to help her escape. It starts with a deadly incident and gets ever more dangerous.

For men, the crazy beauty ratio is very real and there is plenty of both in Gloria. I totally get Paul's motivation and dilemma but at some point, he has to man up. The two young leads are good. They are able to maintain intrigue in this relatively simple young tragic romance.

Haute Cuisine for the screen - ie. you don't get very much to chew on.

[Victor_Fallon · 2/10 · 4 September 2021]

It looks nice. But it's the same tone from beginning to end, so becomes visually boring very quickly.

The acting is just ok - incredibly earnest with lots of 'emoting' going on to fill the vast distances between plot points or intrigue.

The story is a fairly typical young love drama. Our boy is inexperienced and because of this, he devotes himself to 'rescuing' our girl who is, like, totally crazy man. She's like, totally in an institution and the bad doctors give her sedatives and stuff. And then she y'know, like, says crazy things. She's like sooo crazy.

The writing of her character is unforgiveably weak. The boy slackens his jaw and gawps at her for most of the runtime. The film plods along predictably until it stubs its toe on the ending, which is neither tragic enough nor dramatic enough to matter. In fact, the ending is where the story should have begun. Everything up until that point could have been covered in two minutes.

Tedious, thematically transparent, metaphorically barren and in love with itself. Guff.

A Goddess Off Her Meds

[MogwaiMovieReviews · 8/10 · 20 December 2020]

12-year old Paul falls in love for the first time, unfortunately with a violent, abusive and dangerously insane patient from his nurse mother's psychiatric ward. They run off together and tragic events ensue.

This came out of nowhere for me - I'd never heard of it before today and there seems very little written about it online. It's a very tightly made character piece, small in scale but beautifully shot and observed. The two teen leads are faultless and utterly believable at every turn, and we feel both great tenderness and sorrow for Paul's big, bewildered and tragically open heart doing everything he can to follow the logic of Fantine Harduin's chillingly mad (as in "Kill the chicken it is a spy for my uncle" mad) Gloria.

It's a film about trying to save someone who can't be saved, and trying to believe in someone who can't possibly be believed, and the harm to all around that inevitably follows when a well-meaning boy refuses to recognize the monster beside him who he only wants to worship. It can appear a very small story but Adoration tells it very well and much is communicated about the heavy cost of rose-tinted spectacles.

If it has a weakness, I guess maybe it ends a little anticlimacticly, but I also quite like just floating off and leaving them in this way, thinking about Hinkel's soul and the birds. It's enough.

As a doomed young Romeo and Juliet story, it's not in the same class as, say, Let The Right One In, Badlands, Bonnie & Clyde or Harold & Maude, but it put me in mind of all of them a little, and it does occasionally feel like "they don't make 'em like this anymore"

7.5

P.S., the repeating post credits scene - if it is not just a glitch on my copy - seems a puzzling waste of time.

Typical Fabrice Du Welz's feature

[searchanddestroy-1 · 8/10 · 2 January 2021]

I would have seen this film without knowing the director's name, i would have guessed this was a Fabrice Du Welz creation. You find in this beautiful and eerie movie all the ingredients he puts in nearly every of his films. the deep depiction of the inner human soul, the dark side of the man's spirit. This director is a very sensitive man always at one hundred percent involved in each of his films. A very dedicated film maker and certainly not a simple yes man. Bewitching, poisonous, hypnotic the three words that describe the best the films of this awesome free director.

A gem.

[kincat02 · 10/10 · 13 December 2021]

This is what cinema is supposed to be like. Flawless acting, transcending imagery, touching story, shockingly human. All-in-all, so hauntingly beautiful.

Thank you!

Merci!

Bedankt!

beautifully shot and compelling

[clifee57 · 8/10 · 7 February 2021]

I give any movie i find so compelling a High rating, even though it's kinda forgettable. The acting from the boy was outstanding, such strength of compassion conveyed , despite his seemingly disturbed Mum. The mood and ambient music was enhancing and the connection to nature prominent. There's a great message but it seemed to be put over too obviously, so i suspect i missed something.

In-depth psychological study

[insightflow-20603 · 10/10 · 7 April 2024]

I haven't seen other films by this director, but I'll be sure to. I'm thoroughly pleased with this one - poetic, unintrusive, but unsparing. Subtle in its approach and daring as it deals with psychopathy in children. It evokes great performances from its main protagonists; and another actress strikingly reminded me of the one from Spoorloos (The Vanishing).

Given the film is eerie, visual and intuitive, I don't know why iMDB needs me to add many more words. I may throw in some of the heroine's: "They are snakes and pigs. They want to hurt me. So you will not abandon me? I will love you then."