Young Adam

Written and Directed by David Mackenzie.  Stars Ewan McGregor, Tilda Swinton, Emily Mortimer, Peter Mullan.  
2003, 98 minutes, Color, Rated NC-17.

Summary:

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

This is an interesting film, full of unhappy characters, death and what looks like some extremely chilly weather.  It's a mood piece, really, but notable because it is intelligent and just ambiguous enough to require the viewer to pay attention.  Character interactions are realistic, the way of life depicted is hard, and there is very little joy to be found in the film.  To say that it is unrelentingly bleak would be accurate but the film has much to offer in its darkness.  Life in the tiny barge is all about enforced intimacy and disillusionment. 

Based on a short 1957 novel by Alexander Trocchi, YOUNG ADAM unfolds in a manner that makes the central mystery difficult to anticipate.  This mirrors in some ways the way the book unfolds, which is written in the first person but nevertheless still conceals the mystery for an impressive amount of time.  Early in the film we see Joe on the barge from above as it passes by.  He is walking towards the back of the barge, and because the boat is moving forward it appears as though he is walking place.  This illusion perfectly mirrors Joe's life at this moment--he is a writer suffering from writer's block and has escaped from that by taking a job loading and unloading cargo on a small, barely-solvent barge.  He is neither confronting his past, or trying to move forward.  He is merely keeping time until the next thing comes along.  Walking in place as it were. 

We learn that Joe had been seeing a woman named Cathy.  When his relationship with her reaches a crossroads, he takes the easy way out and walks away rather than commit to her and their relationship.  Joe, we come to learn, is somewhat selfish.   The only thing he takes with him is his typewriter and that he throws that into the river.  On the boat, When confronted with his desire of Ella he ignores the consequences and goes after her.  When this drives away Les and leaves him with more responsibility than he wanted, he again takes the easy way out and walks away.  When he meets up with Cathy months later and she tells him that she is pregnant, once again he takes the easy way out and walks away.  When Cathy accidentally falls into the river, he does not jump in after her.  We had already seen him jump into the river to save Ella's son, so we know he has it in him.  One can surmise that there was no upside for him to go after Cathy.  He did not want a relationship with her.  When he jumped in for Ella's son, it is quite likely he did so to earn favor with her.

We never truly understand Joe perhaps, but the trick of the film is disguising his true nature for as long as it does.  There were certainly clues to his character. Joe literally has consensual sex with EVERY woman we meet in the film*.  However, it should be said that he finds willing partners wherever he goes.  McGregor gives a good performance, remaining legitimately likable even after we find out he was there when Cathy died and has kept it to himself with tragic results.

For all of the above Joe is a troubling character.  If not for the genuine remorse he exhibits when Joe the plumber is arrested for killing Cathy--he knows how she died after all--one could make a case that Joe is a sociopath.  So, not a sociopath, just weak and selfish.

Tilda Swinton gives an impressive performance, infusing her character with a lifetime full of disappointment, and masterfully displays raw sexuality in a real and non-glamorous manner.   They say that when contempt enters a marriage there is probably no way to recover from it.  Ella has contempt for Les, and it seeps out in their every interaction.   We learn that Les is impotent and unable to satisfy his wife sexually, and he proves to be equally impotent when faced with Joe taking his place in both Ella's bed and as the man of the barge.  

Emily Mortimer as Cathy should have received an award of some sort for a scene in which she is debased with food.   She is less clearly defined than the other characters.  Pretty, intelligent, and capable, she would seem to be the idealized companion that Joe thinks he wants.  However, in day to day life, he sees faults and can't help but be disappointed in her. 

At this point, it might be interesting to ponder the meaning of the title of the film.  There is no character named Adam in the story and apparently, Alexander Trocchi never explained what he meant by it.  It's possible he meant Adam in a biblical sense, and if the fruits of the Garden of Eden is a metaphor for sex, then Joe is a main character partaking of many apples.

The film remains in the memory long after viewing it.  

*Or does he? I admit I missed the possibility of an unreliable narrator the first few times watching the film, even though as the novel is told in the first person it is a shining example of the form.  I haven't re-watched the film since making this connection to see if it really changes anything.  It's just another potential layer of a truly remarkable film.