The Adam Project Can’t Decide What it is

Movie: The Adam Project
Director: Shawn Levy
Screenplay by: Jonathan Tropper, T.S. Nowlin, Jennifer Flackett, and Mark Levin
Where to watch: Netflix

This review contains no significant spoilers for the film in question.

What happens

In 2022, 12-year-old Adam Reed (Walker Scobell) is having a rough time following the death of his father, Louis (Mark Ruffalo) about a year-and-a-half earlier. Suspended from school for the 3rd time this year, he finds himself home alone while his mother, Ellie (Jennifer Garner), goes on her first date since her husband’s passing. Investigating weird noises outside, he comes across an injured pilot in his father’s old garage who is all-too-familiar: 40-year-old Adam Reed (Ryan Reynolds) has come from the year 2050 to set something right and save someone he loves.

The plot then ensues with a heavy focus on Adam unintentionally unpacking a lot of trauma and saving himself. The cast was star-packed with Zoe Saldaña playing a far smaller role than I expected and Catherine Keener taking up an antagonistic role.

What worked

The chemistry between Walker Scobell and Ryan Reynolds is fantastic and the choice to cast Scobell as a young Reynolds was inspired. He matches Reynolds’ speech patterns, wit, glibness, and sarcasm without missing a beat. When the two of them are on screen together (especially alone), this movie really shines.

There are moments that get away from the surface-level wit and sarcasm and dig into the implications of confronting one’s younger or older self and these are well-executed. This movie is at its strongest when it’s trying to be thoughtful and emotionally evocative.

Jennifer Garner had a number of quite excellent scenes with both versions of her son that felt real and showcased the talent of all actors involved.

I know that Ryan Reynolds is frequently lauded for his comedic timing and that exists in this movie, certainly, but the moments where he gets real with his younger self are grounded and real. Reynolds is sometimes criticized for playing a single type of character. That may be frequently true—though I find it worth noting that he plays that character very well—but here, there was an attempt to change that up a bit. There’s more action. There are scenes that showcase his ability to be dramatic. We should be careful to put him in a box simply because the man is good at playing a certain kind of character. This film hints at more.

Walker Scobell is a better actor than his age might otherwise suggest. He matches the big stars he shares a screen with effortlessly. I believe we’ll see big things in his future so long as he keeps up this kind of energy.

What didn’t work

With four writers and a number of years spent in production hell, it’s perhaps not surprising that this film lacks a distinct identity. It wants to be an action sci-fi thriller and then spends a lot of time almost thinking deeply about its premise—and the premise is a good one. I think a good screenplay writer could do a lot with the idea of visiting one’s past self and past life. Unfortunately, this didn’t pay off as well as hoped in The Adam Project.

The action is fine, if a little empty and jarring as every time the film throws us into it it feels like I’m watching a second—lesser—movie. I don’t think it added anything interesting to the film aside from filler and and some Fun-and-Games shots that director Shawn Levy lingers on a bit too much. The CGI is, at least, good enough to not be distracting.

The plot clips past important points far too quickly, builds up a few mysteries that never quite pay off, and underutilizes interesting characters. It tends to take the shortest path between two points—which shouldn’t be a bad thing, except that such a path in this case is also generally the least interesting one.

Conclusions

This movie was fun. I enjoyed watching it, even if I felt it didn’t know what it wanted to be. Even when uninteresting choices left me scratching my head, I generally had a good time with it. The chemistry of the actors more than makes up for the weakness of the script.

That said, their chemistry wasn’t sufficient to make me stop thinking about how weak the script is in some spots and how hand-wavey the explanations sometimes get. Perhaps there were too many cooks in this writer’s kitchen or perhaps whoever did the final pass had their hands tied by an exacting studio—it’s hard to say exactly what happened.

If you like feel-good action sci-fi, check this one out. It won’t win any awards, but Reynolds and Scobell together are reason enough to give this a watch.

My Rating: ★★★