Adam

Adam is a 2009 American romantic comedy-drama film written and directed by Max Mayer and starring Hugh Dancy and Rose Byrne. The film follows the relationship between a young man named Adam (Dancy) with Asperger syndrome, and Beth (Byrne). Mayer was inspired to write the film's script when he heard a radio interview with a man who had Asperger's. Filming took place in New York City in December 2005. The film premiered at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival, where it won the Alfred P. Sloan Prize, and was released in the United States on July 29, 2009. The release date in Canada and the UK was 7 August 2009 in Australia, and everywhere else after Labor Day. Plot Adam Raki is a young man with Autism living alone in Manhattan after his father's recent death. He has a friend, Harlan Keyes, an old army friend of his father's, who is always there for him. Because of his condition, Adam has difficulty communicating and likes to escape into his love of space exploration. His fixation on detail, repetitive behaviors, and mind-blindness cost him his job at a toy manufacturing company and nearly got him arrested after he is mistaken for a pedophile. He does not want to leave the apartment he and his father had been living in, but the loss of his job leaves him with an uncertain future, including the problem of continuing to pay the mortgage. Although he likes to stick to his routine and avoid socializing, Adam is lonely and wishes things could be different. Beth Buchwald, a school teacher and aspiring children's book writer, moves into the apartment above his and they strike up an awkward friendship. One night, Beth is shocked to find him trying to clean her apartment windows suspended from the roof of the building in a space suit. She takes a liking to Adam despite his oddities. Adam hopes for a relationship with Beth. Although his first attempts are uneasy, he eventually breaks out of his beloved routines enough to be able to date Beth. When Adam asks Beth if she was aroused as he was during an outing to Central Park, she is taken aback. Adam admits his Asperger's and explains his inability to interpret her emotions. Surprised by his innocence, the next day she asks a co-worker about Asperger's syndrome and is advised that Adam is not "dating material". Nonetheless, she is drawn to him, and his eccentricities make him more attractive to her.