"Young Adam" #1: Uhh, If You Don't Mind My Asking, Who's Adam?
 

All content from its page on the Official Cannes Film Festival Website

Ewan McGregor heads home to his native Scotland for a chilling thriller, presented in the Un Certain Regard category. A change of scenery after his recent Hollywood blockbusters - Moulin Rouge and Star Wars -, he enters a world of leaden skies, smoky pubs and grayish factories, for David MacKenzie's newest feature, Young Adam. It tells the story of Joe, a rootless young drifter, who finds work on a barge traveling between Glasgow and Edinburgh. One afternoon they discover the corpse of a young woman floating in the water. As the police investigate, we discover that Joe knows more than he is letting on.


Young Adam is a highly charged suspense movie (sexually especially), mainly thanks to the electrifying trio of actors – Ewan McGregor, Tilda Swinton and Peter Mullan. A film filled to the brim with flashbacks, black humor, sordid violence, shortcuts... Top it off with a sudden turn of events and you've got a thriller that will keep you on the edge of your seat.

Also:

Joe, a rootless young drifter, finds work on a barge travelling between Glasgow and Edinburgh, owned by Les and his wife Ella. One afternoon they discover the corpse of a young woman floating in the water. Accident? Suicide? Murder? As the police investigate and suspect is arrested, we discover that Joe knows more than he is letting on. Gradually we learn of Joe's past relationship with the dead woman. Meanwhile an unspoken attraction develops between Joe and Ella, heightening the claustrophobic tensions in the confined space of the barge.

The page also has a cast list, with no mention of an "Adam" anywhere. [img]smilies/look.gif[/img]

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I can't wait to see this movie. I read the book and finished it in two hours. It's a really good role for Ewan. I can totally see him playing Joe. The movie is sexy and erotic. I just hope it's released in the U.S. They may have to do a lot of editing to get it down to an R rating. I've heard there's a sex scene with custard...

I have no idea why it's called Young Adam. I'll find out, but it might have to do witht he ending or something. I dunno. I was wondering that too.

Yup, this looks like one of those movies that I wouldn't mind waiting for. The others movies on that list are The Pillow Book and Velet Goldmind.

[img]smilies/flowers.gif[/img]Ellen

Very positive review from Variety:

By DEREK ELLEY

WARNING : SPOILERS

All of the promise that was evident in Scottish helmer David Mackenzie's flawed freshman feature, "The Last Great Wilderness" (2002), is richly achieved in his second pic, "Young Adam," a resonant, beautifully modulated relationships drama set amid the canals and gray stone buildings of early '50s Scotland. Strongly cast, with an especially fine perf by Ewan McGregor as an amoral drifter caught up in a couple's passionless marriage, this gently atmospheric pic establishes Mackenzie as an accessible stylist within mid-range contempo British cinema. Film looks set for a long fest career, with moderately warm biz in upscale venues on the back of strong critical support.

Script is based on a novel by Scottish-Italian writer Alexander Trocchi, a bohemian, Beat Generation figure who grew up in Glasgow, got involved in the Paris literary avant-garde, and in 1955 moved to New York. He became a serious heroin addict and (like his characters in "Young Adam") lived on a barge. A friend of such figures as Leonard Cohen, William Burroughs and Norman Mailer, he died from his addiction in Britain in the '60s.

Though set in the socially and sexually hidebound Britain of the early '50s, sex is the defining force in all the characters' lives. From the opening shot of a young woman's body, naked except for a petticoat, pulled from the waters around Glasgow, film has an undercurrent of charged sexuality in which copulation is portrayed devoid of romance and as a purely physical release from social or emotional frustrations.

When pic begins, young Joe Taylor (McGregor) is working on a barge plying between Glasgow and Edinburgh. It's owned by an average working class stiff, Les Gault (Peter Mullan), and is also a cramped home to him, nagging wife Ella (Tilda Swinton), and their young son, Jim (Jack McElhone).

After they fish the body out of the water, the incident forms a topic of conversation as they chug along the River Clyde to Edinburgh. It's not long, however, before Joe starts making advances to Ella, whose marriage is devoid of physical passion.

Many of the sexual encounters take place in the open, rather than in more cozy surroundings. After leaving Les at a pub one night, Joe -- who endears himself to the couple by rescuing Jim from drowning -- and Ella have a frantic bout of fully-clothed sex on the towpath prior to Les' drunken return. Soon the two are exchanging bodily juices with Les only a few feet away on the barge.

Not far into the drama, without any warning, pic starts to flashback to an unspecified time when Joe took up with a beautiful young woman, Cathie (Emily Mortimer), whom he met on a beach. Scenes from that relationship run side by side with the present.

In Edinburgh, Joe is introduced to Ella's sister, Gwen (Therese Bradley). In a nicely written cameo that introduces a welcome breath of humor, boozy Gwen promptly takes Joe round a corner and gets him to service her standing up -- all in the space of a single cigarette.

Pic is more a sustained mood piece than a plot-driven mystery or drama. Relationships remain open-ended, unresolved or simply passing liaisons of sexual convenience. These are all characters literally drifting along through a still stratified society that's mostly joyless and make-do.

Joe is an unfettered spirit who touches many people's lives without ever engaging with their day-to-day responsibilities, and the film's only real drama lies in whether he'll sacrifice his personal freedom for the benefit of others. Some auds may feel that, at the end of the day, the pic doesn't actually add up to much.

Given the relative lack of dimension, atmosphere and performances are everything here, and pic scores on both fronts. Giles Nuttgens' widescreen lensing -- cold and blue-tinged in exteriors and warmer and ruddier in the cramped barge's interiors (agilely shot in a studio) -- is pointed without being showy. David Byrne's melancholy, gently churning chamber score adds texture to the visuals. Pic is classically composed and directed, sans handheld naturalism.

McGregor is tops as Joe, underplaying the character's opportunism without ladling on the charm. Swinton and Mortimer are equally good as two very different women who fall for Joe's sexual magnetism. Mullan, solid in a smaller role, is more restrained than usual. Bradley is briefly terrific as Gwen.

Period detail is good and natural looking, both in clothes and props. Running time is just right, with no flab.

Camera (color, widescreen), Giles Nuttgens; editor, Colin Monie; music, David Byrne; production designer, Laurence Dorman; art director, Stuart Rose; costume designer, Jacqueline Durran; make-up/hair designer, Meg Speirs; sound (Dolby Digital), Colin Nicolson, Tim Alban; associate producers, Peter Watson, Stephan Mallmann, Gillian Berrie; assistant director, Mike Elliott; casting, Des Hamilton. Reviewed at Cannes Film Festival (Un Certain Regard), May 16, 2003. Running time: 98 MIN.

thank you Steff, looks like i'm not alone right now

thanks steff.
do you think the movie will be shown in the U.S.? if it is I bet it won't be shown in any theater near me.

Me either, damn my little wisconsin town!

[img]smilies/flowers.gif[/img]Ellen

They are still looking for a distributer for the U.S.
[img]smilies/frown.gif[/img] So there are no plans to release it in the U.S. just yet. It could change though, since it's playing at the Cannes Film Festival.

[img]smilies/bawl.gif[/img] [img]smilies/frown.gif[/img], ::sighs::, oh well. I just hope i can see it some day.

[img]smilies/flowers.gif[/img]Ellen

I hope someone decides to distribute it. Maybe if it does really well in Europe they will.

Ellen I'm sure you'll find some way to see it. If it's not in any theaters maybe you can rent it.

Yeah, Victora, you're probaly right. ::sighs:: Or maybe HBO will show it, it ight take a while, but it could happen.

[img]smilies/flowers.gif[/img]Ellen

yea, HBO might show it. There's some films that aren't American that I've seen on TV.

Yeah, that's one of the great things about HBO, with out it I wouldn't of seen Trainspotting, and a certian part of Ewan's for that matter [img]smilies/wink.gif[/img].

[img]smilies/flowers.gif[/img]Ellen

possible spoilers

Film Review: Young Adam
Tue May 20, 2003 03:38 AM ET
By Michael Rechtshaffen
CANNES (Hollywood Reporter) - Classic Hollywood film noir speaks with a Scottish brogue in "Young Adam," an impressive second feature by David Mackenzie that takes its darkly existential cue from a forgotten novel by heroin-addicted Beat writer Alexander Trocchi.

While Mackenzie, an award-winning short filmmaker, gets right to the murky heart of the genre, he also does extremely well by the efforts of his highly capable cast -- in particular, the truly dynamic duo of Ewan McGregor and Tilda Swinton.

It's hard to think of two less-inhibited actors working today, and although their scorchingly vigorous sex scenes will no doubt help sell the picture, the stripped-bare purity of their performances leaves a lasting impression long after the titillation factor wears off."Young Adam" is one of the few pictures shown at Cannes so far that's assured of a postfestival theatrical future.

There's a palpable mixture of sweat, grime and mist hanging over the early 1950s Glasgow setting -- in other words, the perfect conditions for the introduction of the flimsily clothed, floating corpse of a young woman.

The discovery is made from the barge where Joe (McGregor), a drifter, has temporarily taken root, working for the straight-up Les (Peter Mullan) and his unhappily married wife, Ella (Swinton).

It is soon made quite clear to the audience that Joe actually knows quite a bit about the drowned woman, but more evident still is the almost suffocating sexual tension between Joe and Ella that has been building in the barge's cramped living quarters.

Not surprisingly, Joe starts making excuses for not joining Les at the pub so that he and Ella are able to find plenty of hot and heavy breathing room below the deck.

As their steamy affair progresses, an investigation is made into the mystery woman's death, and an arrest is made. But while he's never legally implicated, it's ultimately Joe who wears the haunted, hollow gaze of a man condemned.

Returning to his Scottish indie roots after firmly establishing himself in such big-budget fare as "Moulin Rouge" and the past two "Star Wars" pictures, McGregor makes for a perfect noir antihero, while Swinton, ever the chameleon, once again disappears effortlessly into a character who proves to be anything but predictable.

Together they set off considerable sparks, but the supporting characters, including Mullan, Emily Mortimer as McGregor's former girlfriend, Cathie, and Therese Bradley as Ella's not-quiet-grieving widowed sister, also nail their respective roles.

While the picture sags a bit toward the end -- as if it has unwittingly followed Joe's aimless lead -- writer-director Mackenzie has nevertheless succeeded in neatly combining satisfying substance with a tremendous amount of style.

Cast: Joe: Ewan McGregor; Ella: Tilda Swinton; Les: Peter Mullan; Cathie: Emily Mortimer; Jim: Jack McElhone; Gwen: Therese Bradley.

Director-screenwriter: David Mackenzie; Based on the novel by: Alexander Trocchi; Producer: Jeremy Thomas; Director of photography: Giles Nuttgens; Production designer: Laurence Dorman; Editor: Colin Monie; Costume designer: Jacqueline Durran; Music: David Byrne.

I hope Young Adam is able to find a distributer in the U.S. All the reviews have been good so far and I really want to see it.


yea, I don't think Trainspotting could ever be shown on CBS or NBC. There would have to be some serious editing and dubbing. And I'm sure all the scenes edited out would be the best ones.