Finished the DVD of About Adam tonight -- I'd Netflix'd it based on seeing the box at the local Blockbuster one night -- imagining it to be just the typical romantic comedy -- perfect for an evening after teaching my grad seminar, when my brain is jello. Well, imagine my surprise, when two of the characters start quoting Christina Rossetti's Goblin Market ! Turns out one of the 3 sisters is writing her MA thesis on "Hysteria and Lust" in Victorian women writers -- she quotes Wuthering Heights while in bed, that sort of thing. A bit over the top in the repressed-to-expressed transformation, but still, Christina doesn't get a lot of screen time these days.
And actually, in all other respects, I quite enjoyed the film -- interesting pov structure, and way more sex-positive than the usual romantic comedy genre allows for. And, it's set in Ireland -- a very different view than most films tend to give.
I'm always fascinated by film portrayals of academics and/or thesis writers...the woman in Lisa Cholodenko's recent film, Laurel Canyon really got to me -- secluding herself, the pressure to write . . . few films can really stand to portray the agony of the writing experience (without totally navel-gazing, like Adaptation).
4/10/2004
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