Watching Ryan Reynolds and Shawn Levy create together is total bliss. Both do not seem to care what people think or expect, so these two just create what’s on their bursting-with-creativity minds. Maximum effort it is.
Back in March, I watched their film »The Adam Project« six or seven times. It was a fabulous blockbuster that I enjoyed watching very much. However, the story could have been better. How? Three things.
{Contains spoilers. But of course!}
1. Why, why oh why did they cut the scene with Adam’s mum?!
A few weeks after the film release on Netflix, they released a deleted scenes clip. Among them was one of the best scenes in the entire story. The central conflict of the film is »Adam suffers after his father died, and acts out against his mum.« This is shown in different ways: Old Adam (Ryan Reynolds) mentions several times that he wishes he’d been nicer to his mum during these months. He is full of regret. However, this could have been so much stronger! Young Adam just makes a few nasty remarks. He does not act out much when his mum gets back into dating. He just makes silly faces. All in all, to us viewers, Adam is an adorable kid. Witty, fast clapbacks, cute brown eyes.
He is too adorable and not nasty enough towards his mum.
If this really is the central conflict, we’d definitely need additional scenes, additional arguments, additional quarrels.
Flipping it around, we viewers get to see the other side of this conflict: Adam’s mum (Jennifer Garner) chastises herself all the time. Does she do enough for Adam? How can she be better at keeping the house in order? How can she deal with the paperwork m-e-s-s her husband has left behind? Does Adam know she loves him? And of course: how can she help him navigate this difficult time after his father has died? We as viewers get glimpses into her exhausted mind.
After Old Adam (Ryan Reynolds) meets his mum at a bar, he tells her the things he should have said as a kid. He comforts her: »You’re doing enough. And you’re grieving as well! After all, you have lost your husband.« Young Adam, he says, loves her very much, even if the boy does not show it.
The scene shows great acting from both Ryan Reynolds and Jennifer Garner. Garner plays a torn, exhausted mum. A mum who is at the end of her wits. Having this conversation in the bar – Adam as a grown-up; his mum as a grown-up and both roughly the same age – is a twisted, unrealistic moment. A moment that just a time travel film can create. This bar scene with Reynolds and Garner was probably the key scene in the entire story.
But I’d say: the deleted scene was even stronger.
It’s the moment where Jennifer Garner, Adam’s mum, decided to act on this peculiar encounter with Old Adam/Ryan Reynolds. Following the advice of a stranger in a bar, she suddenly decides to drop her »I-have-it-all-together« shell. Towards her young son, and in a very vulnerable way, she decides to open up in a conversation. Young Adam – that’s what she thinks – needs a strong mum. So she plays the strong mum all the time. And it’s hard. Opening up and showing her weak self towards a pesky 12-year old is risky.
It’s messy. It’s tearful. It’s raw.
And we, the viewers, would have deserved to see this.
It could have inspired many, many parents.
Because this scene in itself is a moment of bravery.
2. Why don’t they show us what the future is like?
I remember watching »Back To The Future II« over thirty times in the 1990s. It was one of my favourite films back then. And then, on October 22, 2015, it was an absolute pleasure to compare the idealistic film version of 2015 with the reality. Did they really think there would be flying taxis, self-tying shoes and tiny pizzas that would get bigger in the futuristic microwave? Michael J. Fox and Christopher Lloyd even made fun of this. In a Jimmy Kimmel monologue, they seemingly arrive in October 2015 and start asking questions. »Have you reached peace in the Middle East?«, Marty wants to know. (Well, no.) »Then what have you guys have been doing for 30 years?« It was a moment of reflection. A moment that allowed us to pause, to ponder, to compare what our hopes and dreams were and would have been.
The Adam Project could have mirrored this moment.
Wouldn’t it be great if they’d shown us a short glimpse into 2050? And in a few decades, people would have watched ›our‹ figments of imagination of the future, and smiled about it – the same way we smiled about Marty McFly’s and Doc Brown’s reflection? All we ever get in The Adam Project is Ryan telling us that 2050 worse than Terminator. In my opinion, another missed opportunity.
3. Why don’t they show us what Adam has lost – his one true love?
Again, this was deleted during the editing process. We, the viewers, can sense that something is missing. Because this is what we see: Very, very curt and reluctantly, Old Adam reveals his motivation to travel back in time. We just get small bits and pieces of information.
Old Adam/Ryan Reynolds mentions that he has lost ›something‹.
He mentions that »yep, we have a wife«. He confesses that she was killed.
Later, he yells at Young Adam/Walker Scobell: this person was »the only woman he ever loved«. (Wait, didn’t he tell his mum in the bar that he LOVES her? She is a woman, right?! I am confused?) That aside, Old Adam tells that his dead wife is the reason he travels back in time. She is the reason he messes up the time-continuum. However, we just never get to see any glimpses into married life of Adam and his wife. It’s just Old Adam who TELLS it. (And not necessarily in a convincing way.) This, too, could have been so much stronger. If only they had shown a few flashbacks in where we, the viewers, could have SEEN how happy Adam was back then. How precious and special his love to his wife was.
Out of nowhere, Laura appears. She’s alive!
We – the viewers – quickly adapt.
We accept this fact.
(Hastily, we are told her backstory: She also travelled back in time. She has waited 4 long years to find Adam. Hmmm.) Their reunion is brief. They kiss, they make love. The sit next to each other near a lake and share a meal. Domestic bliss! Then, Adam has to escape super-quickly. While the bad guys, yes, kill Laura. End of the rekindled romance… Whut?!
This, dear scriptwriters, was not enough.
All you ever gave us was what Adam SAID about this relationship. And these 3,5 minutes of a half-assed reunion.
You writers ignored the first law of storytelling: Show, don’t tell.
»Don’t tell me the moon is shining«, Anton Chekhov famously said, »show me the glint of light on broken glass.«
We want to see it! Then we can believe it.
However, there’s another layer to this.
Problematic is this: When it comes to their relationship with their father, both Old and Young Adam tell their perception of it. Many scenes contain conversations about different versions of their stories. Old Adam is bitter, Young Adam is more convinced that their dad actually loved them. (Think of the scene in front of the Pine Ridge motel, when Young Adam reminds Old Adam that dad played catch with him in the backyard, even when he was tired.) So, we already have *one* big conflict that is not shown in flashbacks: the father-son conflict.
Circling back to the marriage: Now, we have a *second* plot threat which is NOT shown in any flashbacks. All we ever have is what Adam tells us.
And this is where it gets problematic.
Not only one, but TWO plot threats both »tell« and don’t show.
It would have been so much stronger, if we could have SEEN his memories of their time together, as flashbacks. Or as dreams.
If we could have SEEN how they both navigated their time in the Air Force, and subsequently, in Time Travel Academy together. Her effect on Adam.
If we could have SEEN her qualities, her values, her outlook on life. And time.
Then we would have understood better WHY Adam wants to destroy time travel so badly. A flashback here and there would have helped, non?
Levy x Reynolds = #Leynolds. What’s Next?
Apart from that, The Adam Project was one of my 2022 film highlights already. I watched and rewatched so many times. It was absolutely mesmerising to see Mark Ruffalo and Jennifer Garner together on screen again. I just loved their film »13 Going on 30«, and this was the perfect extension of their 2004 love story. In The Adam Project, I loved seeing both of Adam’s parents accept the other person’s flaws and love each other so much. The soundtrack by Rob Simonsen was also very emotional and catchy. Also, the casting was *chefskiss*
Walker Scobell seems a mini-force to be reckoned with. Can you believe it’s his first-ever film role, ever? I am so excited to see what he will play next. And Zoe Saldaña was fabulous. The scene before she sacrifices herself for her husband is so moving. Her face shows ALL the emotions: angst, anger, grief, peace, contentment – all within a few, short seconds. It’s pure joy to watch an actress perform like this.
As for now, I will probably watch The Adam Project again in a few weeks. And I hope that Netflix releases an extended version with more backstory scenes someday. Because the aforementioned mum-scene absolutely NEEDS to be in the film.
It’s also great to see that Shawn Levy and Ryan Reynolds have formed an ongoing creative partnership.
A partnerships with new films to come.
(Among them 🔥🔥🔥🔥 Deadpool 3!!)
I will absolutely, definitely watch these.
Film poster: By http://www.impawards.com/2022/adam_project_ver2.html, Fair use via https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=70037125. Film clips of Jimmy Kimmel and the Adam Project: Fair use just to provide critical commentary on the film. ›Do you mind hitting the light on your way out?‹