Film

Movie theaters, reviews and showtimes in New York, plus articles, trailers and more
 

An American Affair (2009)

Director: William Olsson

1

Critics' rating

Average user rating
2 reviews

Movie review

From Time Out New York

It’s 1963, hairstyles are flipped, and TVs blast only iconic JFK newsreel footage. Catherine Caswell (Mol), hotcha artist divorcée, moves in across the street from sullen teen Adam Stafford (Bright). The new neighbor attracts the boy’s feverishly hormonal gaze by lingering in states of undress by the window (we know she’s bohemian because she makes annoying pronouncements like “Form is dead”). Soon, she’s tolerating the kind of behavior from Adam that any rational person would call stalking, including his hiding in her closet during one of her trysts. But Caswell, who’s also drawn the attention of someone more statesmanlike, has a few personal quirks of her own. Nothing says damaged goods like daytime drinking and affairs with doomed Presidents.
Stuck in William Olsson’s awkward melding of coming-of-age tale and political conspiracy thriller, Mol tries her best to make something of a role that’s half siren and half mourning mommy. How the assassination plot fits within this moist-pawed saga of unlikely friendship is fuzzy at best. Caswell’s ex-spouse, a CIA spook, keeps pressuring her to talk to her lover about “Bobby” and “Langley.” That’s as in-depth as it gets. By the end, you wonder if either Olsson or screenwriter Alex Metcalf even bothered to read the Cuban Missile Crisis entry on Wikipedia.

Author: Alison Willmore 2009-02-24 17:42:29

Time Out New York Issue 700: February 26 - March 4, 2009

  • Print this page
  • Send to a friend

User reviews of this film

  • Robert Daley said...
    Posted on Mar 03 2009 12:02 It's really a wonderful film with so many layers. I encourage everyone to go and see it and make up their own opinion. Of the critics, I only thought it was the DC press that really understtod the film.
    Report as inappropriate
  • Joe Sweeney said...
    Posted on Mar 01 2009 16:37 I thought the film was sizzler and the variety of interpretation was worth the viewing. It's top drawer and I liked it.
    Report as inappropriate

What do you think?
Post your review now

clear rating
Min 1 star. Zero stars will be treated as unrated.

*mandatory fields


An American Affair

Cast & crew

Director: William Olsson

Cast: Gretchen Mol, Cameron Bright, Noah Wylie

Rated: R

Duration: 96 mins

US Release: Feb 27 2009


Features

Making a name for himself

Making a name for himself

Sin Nombre's Cary Joji Fukunaga learned his lessons well.

To the letter

Forty years later, Costa-Gavras's Z still brims with fury.

Mind over matter

David Cronenberg reflects on a most bizarre body: his own corpus of work.

Fool's gold

Can an Oscar win lead to a cursed career? Here are five stories of postaward professional meltdowns.

We are the championed

Terrorists and teens abound in this year's "Film Comment Selects."

A history of violence

Matteo Garrone's kaleidoscopic Gomorrah wallops you with Italy's crime crisis.

True romantic

James Gray exchanges urban amorality for amour in Two Lovers.

Playing in the dark

MoMA salutes pianist Stuart Oderman's 50 years as the one-man sound of silents.

Junk bonds

Cast and crew recall the making of the classic NYC drug drama The Panic in Needle Park.