Adore (2013)
Average Rating: 4.8/10
Reviews Counted: 59
Fresh: 20 | Rotten: 39
Naomi Watts and Robin Wright give it their all, but they can't quite make Adore's trashy, absurd plot believable.
Average Rating: 4.5/10
Critic Reviews: 24
Fresh: 5 | Rotten: 19
Naomi Watts and Robin Wright give it their all, but they can't quite make Adore's trashy, absurd plot believable.
liked it
Average Rating: 3.2/5
User Ratings: 3,174
Movie Info
Set in an Australian seaside town of otherworldly beauty and shot in lush 35mm Cinemascope, ADORE establishes an aura of fable as it follows two women's plunge into uncharted waters. Watts and Wright fearlessly engage with both the physical and psychological components of the story, capturing the complex emotions and powerful desires driving their characters. Strong performances from relative newcomers Xavier Samuel (THE TWILIGHT SAGA: ECLIPSE) and James Frecheville (ANIMAL KINGDOM) complement
Sep 6, 2013 Limited
$0.3M
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Cast
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Naomi Watts
Lil -
Robin Wright
Roz -
Xavier Samuel
Ian -
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Ben Mendelsohn
Harold -
Sophie Lowe
Mary -
Jessica Tovey
Hannah -
Gary Sweet
Saul -
Alyson Standen
Molly -
Skye Sutherland
Young Roz -
Sarah Henderson
Young Lil -
Isaac Cocking
Young Tom -
Brody Mathers
Young Ian -
Alice Roberts
Roz's Granddaughter -
Charlee Thomas
Lil's Granddaughter -
Drew Fairley
Theatre Director -
Rowan Witt
Oswald -
Sally Cahill
Mrs. Alving -
Richard Huggett
Punter -
Scott Piro
Western Yachts Assis... -
Graham Jackson
Clergyman -
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Adore Trailer & Photos
All Critics (59) | Top Critics (24) | Fresh (20) | Rotten (39)
This isn't an Oedipus complex. This is a Preposterous complex.
Top CriticCast actresses with the skills that Naomi Watts and Robin Wright bring, give their obliviously icky story some arthouse visual lyricism, and you've got "Adore."
Adore is, as my late mother would say in describing Sidney Sheldon novels, good trash.
An exceedingly silly, sun-baked sex movie, the kind of import that adds just enough brains to its genitals to get into U.S. arthouses. (In the '70s, the mothers would have been played by Laura Antonelli and Sylvia Kristel.)
What's shocking here is how not shocking all this is. Watts and Wright provide interesting portraits of two friends who really do appear to have an unconditional fondness for each other. They make the unfathomable believable -- almost.
At Sundance, where the first showing was nearly laughed off the screen, Adore, based on a Doris Lessing novella, was known as Two Mothers. You should know it as something to avoid.
Would Fontaine have made this film if the mothers looked like and were as old as Barbra Streisand and Kathy Bates and the sons weren't built like surfers? Of course not.
Sets the bar pretty low, and achieves its goal.
'Adore' has received mostly negative reviews. The dismissiveness suggests a discomfort with the subject matter -- an unwillingness to process this particular fiction by writers who on other days grapple agreeably with haunted houses and singing chipmunks.
Never goes into the dark, sordid territory a story such as this demands, and lacks the passion it deserves.
'Mommy Dearest,' indeed.
It makes for an ideal travelogue, for sure. But as a salacious dip into forbidden waters, it shoots nothing but blanks.
Despite the Australian surf-community setting, the film has a refreshingly grown-up European sensibility.
It's not until the last 15 minutes of the film do we see consequences of the affairs on the young men's families. We wished that there would have been more of these outbursts throughout the film instead of the dreamlike state in which Adore languishes.
With all the recent flap about the casting of "Fifty Shades of Gray," here is a film that gives a whole new definition to the phrase 'mommy porn.'
a compelling, dangerous meditation on the stifling nature of convention, and the fluid nature of emotional bonding when societal norms are put aside
Adore is able to capture the indecisive nature of human desire rather effortlessly, but it's as if the drama purposely makes that indecisiveness unbearable. There's really no arguing that Adore is nothing more than a glorified chick flick.
Adore is a proudly feminist film, with both its pedigree and its themes allowing additional opportunities for women.
Adore is a pretty yet superficial romance that feels more like a Twitter update with #richwhitewomenproblems.
Unsatisfying but sexed-up drama tackles controversial theme.
Audience Reviews for Adore
To be fair, "Adore" has to be the most sensitive movie one could possibly make about the provocative topic of a quasi-incestuous relationship, as depicted here.(Not only does Tom comment late about Lil being a second mother but Lil and Roz are both blonde, blue-eyed and athletic, and probably end up being mistaken for sisters a lot.) Much of that has to do with the movie's overall artistic bearing and specifically the excellent segues that show the passage of time while time seems to be standing still on this particularly beautiful piece of earth where there is a lot of alcohol consumed and which admittedly I would also have a problem with leaving. But is that all these characters could ever want, for nothing to change or to happen?
Super Reviewer
Discussion Forum
| Topic | Last Post | Replies |
|---|---|---|
| Yea, we are all thinking it. | 35 days ago | 4 |
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Foreign Titles
- Tage am Strand (DE)
- Adore (UK)
