Subscribes wholeheartedly to the history-as-pornography school of thinking, in which all will be revealed if you can figure out who is sleeping with whom, when and where and what they do in bed.
An American Affair (2009)
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:35
Fresh:6
Rotten:29
Average Rating:3.8/10
Consensus: With a plot both undercooked and cliche riddled, An American Affair unsuccessfully mixes a coming-of-age story and a presidential conspiracy thriller.
Theatrical Release:Feb 27, 2009 Limited
Synopsis:
Washington DC, 1963: the Cuban Missile Crisis is last year’s news, and John Fitzgerald Kennedy’s
young administration is starting to hit its stride. Behind the scenes, however, winds...
Washington DC, 1963: the Cuban Missile Crisis is last year’s news, and John Fitzgerald Kennedy’s
young administration is starting to hit its stride. Behind the scenes, however, winds of
discontent are swirling.
Thirteen-year-old Adam Stafford has his own problems to deal with. At that uncomfortable age
when both everything and nothing seems possible, he’s a bit of a loner, a kid who spends too
much time wrapped up in his own thoughts as he suffers through the daily grind of nuns, bullies,
and girls at Holy Cross School.
Until the evening his adolescent yearnings come to life: Adam spies a beautiful naked woman
in the house across the street, and his curiosity is inflamed. The woman is Catherine Caswell,
a stunning thirty-something blond beauty who has just moved in. Captivated, Adam is determined
to learn all he can about his new neighbor.
Catherine is an artist, a divorcee and a confidante (if not more...) of JFK. Against all odds, an
unlikely friendship blossoms between the innocent thirteen-year-old and the world-weary survivor.
But friendship is never enough, not in Washington, and not at the height of the Cold War. Catherine’s
hidden past soon catches up with them as she and Adam find themselves enmeshed in
the growing confusion and intrigue leading to the assassination of the President.--© Screen Media
Starring: Gretchen Mol, James Rebhorn, Cameron Bright, Mark Pellegrino
Starring: Gretchen Mol, James Rebhorn, Cameron Bright, Mark Pellegrino, Perrey Reeves, Noah Wyle
Director: William Sten Olsson
Director: William Sten Olsson
Screenwriter: Alex Metcalf
Producer: Kevin Leydon, William Sten Olsson
Composer: Dustin O'Halloran
Studio: Screen Media
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Reviews for An American Affair
If you can get past the exploitation-of-minors thing, there's a tawdry exuberance to moments like the one in which the twerp and his overage girlfriend drunkenly splash paint on each other.
Sketchily written, clumsily directed and poorly acted, even history-conspiracy aficionados will be left cold.
Did Metcalf spend a weekend watching "Summer of '42" and "JFK" and decide they'd make a good mash-up?
A flick for Kennedy assassination conspiracy buffs which puts a whole new spin on "the grassy knoll" courtesy of the flamboyance of a nearly-naked Gretchen Mol.
Here's the best thing I can say: that it refrains from having its 13-year-old protagonist have sex with Gretchen Mol.
Stuck in William Olsson’s awkward melding of coming-of-age tale and political conspiracy thriller, Mol tries her best to make something of a role that’s half siren and half mourning mommy.
Only Noah Wyle, as Adam's unreadable dad, rises above the muck; he deserves his Tarantino-aided resurrection sooner rather than later.
An unholy genre mutation undreamt of on the isle of Dr. Moreau, An American Affair piggybacks the pubescent sexual awakening sapfest onto the JFK assassination conspiracy thriller.
A dash of Ingmar Bergman and Oliver Stone in this Capitol Hill noir, as kinky DC sexual politics collide with flaky JFK conspiracy theories, and Bay of Pigs CIA boozer masterminds wonder if communists are having more fun.
The immersion of a titillating, gender-altered Lolita story into the political framework of 1963 strikes a chord of wanton misuse of dramatic license.
The relationship of a 13-year-old innocent with a sophisticated 30-something woman is credible: not so much the political conspiracy.
The central relationship remains intriguing but the later parts of the film suffer from a routine conspiracy plot.
Latest News for An American Affair
March 01, 2009:
A dash of Ingmar Bergman and Oliver Stone in this Capitol Hill noir, as kinky DC sexual politics collide with flaky JFK conspiracy theories, and Bay of Pigs CIA boozer masterminds wonder if communists are having more fun. ![]()
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February 26, 2009:
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