Young Adam Reviews

• Unwanted Censorship

  
  By AEE9YJT6X9I3F on 2004-09-15
  What a travesty to offer this film with an R rating rather than the NC-17(totally outrageous) theatrical version. I ordered this film, not paying attention to the rating, but when I realized what Sony had done I immediately cancelled my purchase. When and if the original film is released I will purchase it.
  
  

• No thanks Sony!

  
  By A3G0AU1A98YPY2 on 2004-09-09
  In order to please the Blockbusters and Wal-Marts of the nation, Sony has decided (in their infinite wisdom) to only release an EDITED version of this film on home video. I really thought that we were past this type of censorship, but apparently not.
  
  The film, which was released in theaters NC-17, is now trimmed by about three minutes and re-rated R. This is a shame because I personally felt that the NC-17 was unjustified. I have seen far more graphic footage in films that got away with an R.
  
  If you want to support censorship of a genuine piece of art, go ahead and buy this dvd. Otherwise, invest in a region-free player and import the uncut version from the UK. Being region-free is the only way to be!
  
  

• Amazing movie

  
  By A2DE7QZ6FQ3JNM on 2004-08-17
  The movie is amazing. The one star is because this is the R-rated version! Don't get it! The NC-17 version released in theaters is much rawer.
  
  John
  
  

• pitch perfect

  
  By A1MYKR9HHCR6EW on 2005-01-05
  To preface this review, I only want to say that, when it comes to films, and art in general, I'm pretty prudish in that I mostly wish that "art sex" was either less prominent or more stylized. Anyway, movies with a lot of sex really don't do it for me, unless it is absolutely necessary (as with any plot element).
  Well, in this film it happens to be absolutely necessary. It is rather thick on symbolism (a good thing) and the different parts of the story all play off of each other in just the right way, so that simply their juxtaposition poses interesting questions. You can't but notice these scenes when watching the film, and that is why it is not just a good film, but a great film.
  It could have very easily been hyper-abstract and unfeeling, actually kind of like the films of another director whom Ewan McGregor has worked with, Peter Greenaway (The Pillow Book). Very many people have been left utterly cold by Young Adam, and that is a respectable reaction to the film. I happened to have a different reaction to it---terrifying, deeply, deeply sad, indeed a kind of modern Fall (apparently the author of the book has been compared to Camus. It makes sense).
  At any rate, the film is very upsetting, but that's the reason to see it, for Mackenzie, as said, is not like Greenaway in that the latter seems to delight in Libertinism and the former seems to recognize the tendency in human beings toward libertinism, while always pointing to the gaping holes such tendencies leave within us. I want to puke after a Greenaway film; to reflect deeply after a Mackenzie film.
  Mackenzie is not perverse, and neither is this film--even for an old prude like me--and ultimately he is a true blue humanist, particularly because it's evident that he does not hate or look down on his characters.
  In life, we might be advised to give Joe a wide berth. But in the movies, we must look him in the face, and see how much he looks like us.
  
  

• Great performances

  
  By A24SP1HH4L4UUA on 2006-01-24
  First I want to say up front:
  A lot of people are complaining about this being an edited, R-rated version instead of the original NC-17. But honestly I think these people are overreacting - as far as I know the only difference between this and the NC-17 version is a slightly extended sex scene that is INCLUDED AS A DELETED SCENE on the DVD. The exclusion of the scene doesn't hurt the story, and it's still there for you to see. If you're thinking of not getting the DVD simply because of this cut scene, I encourage you to reconsider.
  
  As to what I think of the movie - my main reason for watching this movie in the first place is because I am a fan of Ewan McGregor's. And I'm not sure how I really feel about it overall. I do know that I think the sex scenes get repetitive - it almost seems they do so many of them because they want to prove to themselves or somebody else how daring they can be. And I also think the score is hit-and-miss - it is very lovely in some places but somewhat tiring at times. And, while I respect and usually appreciate movies that are subtle and not heavy-handed, I sometimes think this movie is a little too subtle for it's own good. It's point is not immediately apparent, though I'm sure some people like that about it.
  On the good side, as everyone says, all of the performances are excellent. Despite the negative points of the movie, I find it a very compelling watch just for this reason. Ewan McGregor, Tilda Swinton, Peter Mullan, Emily Mortimer, and even some of the smaller parts: they're all riveting, and, for me, easily make this movie worth watching.
  
  
• A Tale of No Redemption
  By AORW1FRF4D4KS on 2005-12-13
  Ewan McGregor long ago proved he is an actor who often exceeds the screen material and leading ladies with whom he has been coupled. In Young Adam, the maturity of the actor matches the material, while an excellent supporting cast excels to create a solid film that could have been stunning in black and white format. The aimless and amoral character of Joe (McGregor) reflect in a subdued performance by McGregor that proves again he is one of the best of the younger British actors to come to the attention of film goers in the 90s. However, Young Adam is the kind of story most audiences won't warm to in its presentation of bleak 50s blue collar life that is unglamorous and dull. It is an existence that was neither fashionable nor trendy.
  
  Joe's daily routine lacks stimulation, so he finds it in a diversion with Ella (Tilda Swinton), the wife of his employer. Swinton is cast in the unglamorous role of a middle aged woman with "thick ankles" and it is a meaty role (sorry for the pun) which many Hollywood actresses yearn to play but haven't the chops. For Joe and Ella, their sexual trysts are far from an erotic session in the sheets. They are stolen moments, sweaty, and hurried. Joe's former girlfriend, whose corpse he hauls from the river at the film's opening, is a plain working class girl. In a fit of creative frustration, Joe douses her with custard and condiments for a moment of angry sex. Their romantic reunion months later is no more than a quickie with deadly results.
  
  Young Adam translates the short novel by Alexander Trocchi with a disenchanted eye to the era. It is a grimy film, quiet, and filled with the boredom of Glasgow coal barges, and of men and women whose lives turned to routine lacks color. In Young Adam, the characters meander into each other with a disinterested lust. One senses the aimlessness of Joe is the creation of his disinterest not only in others, but of life and what little it offers.
  
  Whatever notoriety was made by the press about McGregor's full-frontal nudity, it is no more than another quick flash already seen in earlier films like the Pillow Book and Velvet Goldmine. But, in context with the story, nudity, both male and female, is simply matter of fact -- no seduction or salacious fleshy views. McGregor's body lacks eroticism and underscores his character's amoral nature. Tilda Swinton is a tired woman with an impotent husband and hard life. Swinton's own stunning beauty and catlike face are hardened by the role, and she is outstanding as Ella. Emily Morton, Joe's old girlfriend, is too thin to be believable as a 50s woman, the era of curvaceous figures and chubby thighs; while her small role is also underwhelming. Peter Mullen gives another workmanlike performance as a cuckold spouse, the betrayal by his friend and wife an insult to his waning masculinity. The screenplay itself underwhelms but performances of McGregor and Swinton are worth viewing. Young Adam is a mature story with little nostalgia and romance, but good performances from the talented cast, it is worth viewing and deserves a place in film libraries.
  
  
• Young Adam proves to be an interesting film!
  By A3KMTOFTUUNFHG on 2004-05-10
  Young Adam is based on the novel by Alexander Trocchi, and stars Ewan McGregor and Tilda Swinton. Ewan plays a young man who has gone from university and a life of privilige to being a worker on a river barge that delivers coal. He works for a married couple who along with their son make up the crew. At the start they find the body of a girl in the river.

  Ewan's character has a past with the corpse, and through flashbacks scattered throughout the film we see what has happened to make him what he is now - a lothario and someone who seems to be numb. I thought from descriptions that the movie might be a sexually charged mystery, but it plays more like a mournful descent into loneliness.

  Much has been made of the NC-17 rating. Honestly Ewan has shown more of himself in VELVET GOLDMINE and THE PILLOW BOOK. He has a few scenes with Tilda Swinton that are sort of graphic, and the flashbacks are pretty out there ... but both Ewan and Tilda look like barge workers, and the sex is mechanical for the most part. So don't expect something sexy as in BASIC INSTINCT or 9 1/2 WEEKS! There are definitely R-rated movies out there that show much more, and do it much less subtly. Some of the scenes are even fully clothed in YOUNG ADAM! I think the main problem with kids would be them sitting through two hours of a movie that does not rely on dialogue very heavily. Entire scenes are done with looks.

  Much has been made about Ewan's character being a sociopath. Surely he is unlikeable, and seems to not do right things ... but it feels more like inertia and grief than a real desire to do harm to others. He even saves a life at one point! Hardly the work of someone basically bad.

  A good movie if you are feeling introspective and want well photographed art film with good acting. But surely not action packed or even sexually charged as the rating or other reviews may lead you to believe. This is a quiet film of desperation.
  
  

• It's R-Rated!
  By A2G0KS2DQPFI9U on 2004-09-18
  Listen to the previous reviewers, at first when this title was available for pre-order, I was beside myself with excitment and immediately placed my order without batting an eyelid. However, upon closer inspection, it's rated R! Not the uncut NC-17 version. I cancelled my order immediately!
  
  Save your money here and head on down to Amazon UK to get the original uncut edition, even though it's more expensive. Around 14 pounds.
  
  
• Young Adam is a deeply disturbing and depressing film that is not for everyone,
  By A3C6CZC2JP67VK on 2006-06-11
  What an emotionless portrayal of an emotionless man. Ewan yet again proves that he is a force in both the Hollywood community and in the independent forum. Not only for having the bravery to go against American cliché and fight to keep his full frontal nudity in the film, but also for having the gumption to take this role. To me there's nothing "young" about this character, he was a mature man that desperately needed to find himself and clear his conscience. This movie should of been called "Lost Adam" or Guilty conscience Adam." The cover of this DVD doesn't serve him any justice.
  
  Joe is not your normal 'hero' or character. In fact, I would go as far as to say he represents some of us. He is, sadly, our 'hero'. Joe (and Ewan portrays this perfectly) is constantly looking for happiness and acceptance, but somehow cannot find it due to the sexual urges that he has. It is interesting to see him want to have emotion, but yet have no issues with sleeping with another man's wife. This is a story of maturity for Joe, but sadly we do not ever see it. When I was watching this film I was continually thinking of the film Alfie (not the new release, but the older) in which a man embarks on several relationships and ultimately ends up with nothing. That is very similar to the story that we have here, only Young Adam is much grittier and darker ... and, well, more explicit.
  
  The plot, what little of it there is, unfolds through character and behavior, with a minimum of dialog. There is much complete silence in this film. There is a quiet suspense, never quite gratified, which begins with the very first frame, a corpse, gently floating, photographed darkly, from below, so dark there is no face. A deceased, faceless female human being. Joe's is the first face we see. That first glimpse of his eyes, told me that nothing would be what it seemed in this film. Joe sees something we do not see. So begins the mystery.
  
  Nothing is jarring, nothing is false. Life is simply never quite what we think it is. Make no mistake. There is a real mystery here to be revealed. Not a contrived, plot dependent series of revelations. It is the unpeeling of the layers of a human being. I haven't told you much about the plot. That is deliberate. The plot works. It reveals the character. The progression of events is true, often surprising, but never false, never contrived.
  
  If you love great acting, by all involved, and appreciate the crafts and arts of film construction, I recommend "Young Adam".
  
  
  
• SANITIZED FOR YOUR PROTECTION...
  By A3H1FLT1JO5ZM3 on 2005-08-03
  I have literally looked everywhere to find the ORIGINAL uncut cinematic version of Trocchi's masterpiece, but apparently it is not fit for American eyes-- To all those at Amazon; let me know when the original British version is deemed "acceptable" enough to sell amidst all of the violent, meaningless drivel we are currently bombarded with. I will be more than eager to order THAT version... How demeaning...
  
  
• More Black Scottish Humor
  By A3RNP5X8ZGZIEI on 2006-10-06
  Ewan McGregor stars as "Joe Taylor"in "Young Adam," about a young Scottish drifter with literary pretensions working a coal barge that travels Glasgow to Edinburgh. The movie opens on his finding, and fishing out, the semi-nude corpse of a pretty girl from the black and frightening Clyde River (at the bottom of which we see the typewriter he dumped a while before). Taylor claims to know nothing about this corpse, but by the time the movie, directed by David Mackenzie, and its numerous flashbacks are done, we'll know that he actually knew her quite well: in fact, she was pregnant by him.
  
  You wouldn't expect life on a coal barge to be clean, nor is it, and the makeup artists have done quite a job with the ordinarily handsome McEwan. He's pasty, as befits a resident Scot, drinking and smoking heavily, eating that unhealthy Scots diet, never seeing the sun. And there's ground-in coal dust on his face and in his clothes. The striking Tilda Swinton costars as Ella Gault, married to Les: they operate the barge together though we later discover she owns it. Poor Tilda, dead pale, hair lank and filthy, limited, dirty wardrobe: monosyllabic dialogue: in a career of choosing unexpected parts, this might be the least glamorous role she's ever played.
  
  Anyway, for a married father,and a major male movie star, McGregor is also known for his daring choice of parts, indie and mainstream. He's played gay, and gay love scenes, and doesn't shrink from full frontal nudity. We've got some of that in "Young Adam,"as well, in the frequent, rather graphic sex scenes. His character Joe Taylor seems to fancy every woman he sees, and they all seem to fancy him right back. Mc Gregor is Scots, born in Crieff, educated at Kirkcaddy College, first came to notice in Danny Boyle's 1994 black comedy "Shallow Grave," and to stardom in Boyle's even blacker 1996 comedy "Trainspotting." Mc Gregor has starred in "Guys and Dolls" on the London stage, made "Moulin Rouge" and "Down With Love" in Hollywood, and "Little Voice" in England.
  
  Swinton, best known for "The White Witch" in "The Chronicles of Narnia,"singes the screen with McGregor in their sex scenes, and for a woman with hardly any dialogue, she manages to express quite a lot. She was born in London of an Australian mother and a Scottish father, who was a Major General in the Scots Guard. It's said that the Swintons are the oldest family in Scotland and England: the male line has proven descent back to Saxon times. She currently lives in Nairn, Scotland.
  
  The movie doesn't ever get off its Glasgow to Edinburgh axis, and not a whole lot happens. To be sure, Taylor gets quite a bit of female attention, and proves to be not a particularly likeable man. Ella demonstrates that she knows her way around a boat. There are some fairly taut courtroom scenes. But if you're a movie-movie person, the mise en scene is great, and the acting is at the highest level.
  
  
• Almost gave it 5 stars. Very good movie.
  By A1RRC3ESHQW0YQ on 2004-10-04
  This movie makes you realize how wasted Ewan McGregor is in the Star Wars movies. This guy can act! And anyone who watched "The Deep End" or "Adaptation" already knows what an amazing actress Tilda Swinton is. Her performance in "Young Adam" is her best yet.....truly powerful in it's understatement. She makes being a frumpy Scottish working class mother seem pretty darn sexy! I had not seen Emily Mortimer before, and I was very impressed with her as well.
  There is a lot of sex in Young Adam. I suppose my only gripe about the film is that most of the sex is rather manic. Why is movie sex always so frantic and noisy? I suppose directors don't think audiences want to see real sex. Or they don't think it will make a good movie.
  Anyway, I'm not complaining too much. The sex scenes in Young Adam are still a lot better than we get in American films. There is one particularly fun scene that will remind you of "9 1/2 weeks".
  But really, this film is a powerful meditation on the nature of love and rejection.......life-changing decisions and regret..............the things we make happen versus the things that just happen to us.
  The cinematography is fantastic. David Byrne did the score and I didn't even notice it, which is the way it should be.
  This one's a keeper.
  
  
• "The dead can look after themselves."
  By A3CH1KT8XQE8SA on 2004-05-02
  YOUNG ADAM is an appealing and engaging film filled with secrecy, intrigue and seduction. Joe (Ewan McGregor) works and resides on a river barge shoveling coal and loading heavy cargo outside Glasgow, Scotland. One day he finds the body of a young woman floating in the river and he along with his boss Less and wife Ella (Tilda Swinton) follow the police investigation of the mysterious woman via the newspaper headlines in the ensuing days and weeks. As the plot unfolds it is clear that Joe knows much more about the woman than he initially lets on.

  Joe has an offhand and opaque personality; the audience never quite grasps what motivates him or what makes him tick. By the means of flashbacks it becomes apparent that Joe doesn't necessarily have much compassion for women, at least when it comes to affairs of the heart. After systematically seducing Ella he moves on the next woman without much thought to the ramifications. He doesn't have any desire to settle down with any of them regardless of the circumstances.

  YOUNG ADAM focuses on the lives of the central characters rather than revolving exclusively around a murder mystery. The audience is treated to many convincing and intriguing glimpses into working-class Britain that has much disappeared today. There is a lack of action or sensationalism; rather, there are many scenes of the barge quietly motoring down the various river networks that comprise of this geographical location. These scenes successfully give this film a quiet yet intriguing tone.

  This film received a NC-17 rating for several explicit sexual scenes and frontal nudity, but in all honesty it's really not that bad at all. I've seen films with much more graphic sexuality that received an R rating.
  
  

• Young Joe Smoe and he likes it that way
  By A270RZKNJS04C1 on 2005-05-31
  I'm ammending this from my origninal review at the bottom*
  
  Ok first let's get the artsy people out of the way.
  
  I can appreciate good cinematography. There comes a time when we have to cross a line between establishing the bleak, sameness of a situation and calling it setting up the backdrop of the shot. I'm going to go way out on a limb here and say that the weather and lighting conditions where they were shooting are pretty much the same every single damn day of the year, with a break or 2 here and there, so let's drop the camera work right now because that is hardly what this film is about.
  
  A while back I read that Ewan McGregor had taken an awful role that was basically about nothing and went nowhere but he had a lot of sex in the movie. Being a Ewan fan I found this rather intriguing. I had actually almost forgotten about it until it showed up on cable one night. Seeing it co-starred Tilda Swinton I thought what I read must have been exaggerated, because she is known for choosing her roles careully.
  
  The story unfolds as the men, Ewan and Ela's husband Lars, find a nearly nude dead body of a young woman whilst they are delivering goods on Ela's barge in Scotland. The body is handed over to the authorities and we are privy to domestic life aboard the barge. A child and the heavy drinking of her husband leaves Tilda Swinton's character less than satisfied, and Ewan's Joe is soon to take full advantage of her lonliness.
  
  Events begin to unfold both in present time and flashback and we learn that Joe, while not a murderer, is not completely innocent in the death of the young girl they found drowned at the beginning of the movie. We also find that he is not an ardent lover as Ela seems to believe, just an opportunist who will have sex with any woman who is willing and ready.
  
  On the outside he seems an everyman, just a regular Joe, but inside seethes a failed writer who seemingly hates women and in one repugnant, sadistic scene belittles the poor woman who is too in love with him to see who he really is.
  
  He makes a half-hearted attempt to be decent at times but it is robotic, more or less going through the motions. He is willing at very turn to make his mess and walk away from it untouched. He is a repulsive person behind the facade of the everyman.
  
  I cannot see what drew either Ewan McGregor or Tilda Swinton to doing this film. They have scenes of sex, not lovemaking, and it is as though the director said "Tilda, stick your belly out so we know you've had children, make your body as ugly as possible"-and this is a beautiful woman!
  
  A lot of people play up Ewan McGregor's nudity in films. By now they should get over it. He's showed skin in almost everything he has done and he does in this movie also. It lasts about 1 second and looks the same as it always does. I'm never surprised that he does nudity, but I'm surprised when he takes on a role like this.
  
  This film has no redeeming merits at all except that you are repulsed enough to keep watching it the entire way through.
  
  *I have to say that for some reason as repulsed as I am by this movie I still watch it over and over. It has an almost mesmerizing quality to it. Having met Ewan McGregor in person he looks more himself in this than he has in any film he's been in in a long time. Maybe it is because the setting is so dull and unchanging, (it's like that in reality too) or that the people are so washed out. I don't know. I think it has to be the acting although so minimal it is almost not even there that draws one in.
  
  Nothing has changed about the characters. I still find them all to be either faintly or grotesqly repulsive; Joe's final "triumph" more obscene every time I view it.
  
  However, because there is something there that has this effect I'm going to bump it up to 4 stars. I still caution anyone with an easily troubled conscious (maybe that is my problem) about seeing this film. Spoiler alert-To give you an idea one scene involves a recent widow in an alley with Joe. After a few seconds she bends down to pick up her still burning cigrette complaining about the mess Joe's made of her as he zips up. They then return to Ela'a barge for tea.
  
  That is typical of the lack of morality in the characters. You're disgusted by them at the same time you are fascinted by them.
  
  So watch at your own risk, just don't expect a happy ending-unless you're Joe.
  
  
• Steamy premise, but there's not much more...
  By AESY8NCX6VS6O on 2004-06-14
  It's the kind of opening you want in an eerie, NC-17-rated mystery-thriller: a scantily clad dead female body washing up to the surface of of bleak Scottish strait, barge workers fishing it out. In fact, Young Adam, the latest proof that McGregor is outstanding in anything he does, hits all the right notes so early that its descent into narrative nothingness soon after is enough to piss you off. You see, McGregor's Jim dated the dead woman earlier (no one knows that but him, of course) and he also has an eye on the owner of the barge, played by Tilda Swinton. Problem: Swinton's character is married, but who's that stopping since the movie is NC-17? So begins a steady torrent of naughty little sex scenes that seem to be the point of the movie after a while.

  And even though the movie flashes back to Jim's past, filling in the missing pieces of the girl's death, and despite gorgeously bleak cinematography, there's pretty much nothing in Young Adam besides the touted trysts. Characters move in and out of the movie, there's little rise and fall to it all, and after 6 or 7 sexual encounters I wanted my cigarette already and hoped the movie would go on to bigger and better things. For such a great cast, this kind of vapid, pithy material is borderline insulting - Swinton's conflicted wife could have been given more depth, the cuckold husband implausibly picks up and leaves when he discovers the affair, and not until the end of the movie does McGregor's Jim make the journey slightly worthwhile. And that brings me to the end - for all my griping and quips about Adam, the film's cunning insistence on emotional distance from Jim (no narration, thank God!) and an inspired twist of depravity bump a film up a notch or two that just sat stagnant for so long. But it's too long. Young Adam has enough of a steamy premise to keep you marginally interested for a while, but as sleazy tales of infidelity and foul play go, I've had better. GRADE: C+
  
  

• Allowing the Camera to Relate the Story
  By A328S9RN3U5M68 on 2004-09-21
  The haunting beauty of Alexander Trocchi's book YOUNG ADAM was in the descriptive language, a gift of creating the atmospheric visual from the use of carefully chosen words. In collaborating with Trocchi by making the book visual, writer/director David Mackenzie has succeeded in capturing the atmosphere of working class Scotland circa 1950 with all the dank and dark meanderings of a river barge outside of Glasgow on the river Clyde, the scene of all the action in this unique mystery of death and passion and lust. And for the most part Mackenzie relies on the camera to absorb and illuminate the characters and the nearly unbearable story that lurks beneath the murky water's surface. And God created Adam: man, young Adam learning of physical desires that he hopes will inform his chosen career of writing 'different' books. Joe is this young Adam, a man from middle to upper class Glasgow who has been to university to learn his craft then sets out to experience the world. We first meet him (as played with incredible subtlety and animal magnetism by Ewan McGregor) observing the floating body of a young woman, face down in the river. His co-worker Les (Peter Mullan) helps Joe fish her out of the river and call the ambulance. Switch to a smarmy working barge owned by Ella (the amazingly gifted Tilda Swinton who is not afraid to tackle ANY role and make it credible), who happens to married to Les, and is the dingy home of Joe as he descends into the poor working class of Scotland. Through no dialogue and only eye communication between them, Joe seduces Ella in the beginning of a never-ending series of spontaneous sexual encounters with nearly every woman who enters the picture. In a series of flashbacks we gradually learn that the woman fished from the river was Cathie (Emily Mortimer), a sexual liaison of Joe's and Joe is troubled by the memory of her accidental drowning, though he speaks of it to no one. Joe's and Ella's affair is discovered by Les, and Les leaves the barge home he has known, allowing Ella and Joe to continue their lusty affair unafraid. But things happen, the death of Cathie is investigated by the police and a trial is held, condemning another man to hanging for the 'murder' of Cathie. The tragedy is the emotional distance with which Joe isolates himself from not only fact of deed, but from any sense of personal involvement with the multiple sexual partners he has.
  
  The story may be cold and depressing, but the character of Joe is a careful examination of one man's survival in a world he seeks to understand. There is a metaphor or two here about where we have come as sexual beings and as citizens of a non-compassionate world. The film can be appreciated on many levels. Yes, there is depiction of Joe's type of instant gratification sex: it is darkly graphic, and there is full frontal nudity of (yes, believe it or not!) BOTH Joe and his consorts - something unusual for American audiences. But the dark coarseness of the lust only underlines the overall story, a story that is so well developed with minimal dialogue that it is completely absorbing. None of this could have been possible without the stunning performances by Ewan McGregor and Tilda Swinton, two actors who understand the power of understatement. Perhaps not a film for everyone, but for those who are hungry for dark stories and richly detailed canvases on film, this film is highly recommended. Of note, an 'added feature' on the DVD shows how the film was originally intended to have voice-over by McGregor, who reveals some of the beauty of Trocchi's original writing. It makes one wish for more....
  
  
• A dark and brooding drama and character study ...
  By A2FBIF1FKBC193 on 2004-11-16
  To be able to enjoy this movie the viewer should be forewarned that it's not full of plasticized and air brushed men or women ... the characters are all from 1950's working class neighbourhoods of Scotland. As such don't expect many viwes of rolling hills in the sunlight or meaningfull conversations of fine art or existentialism ....
  
  
  The main charater played by Ewan McGregor, Joe, is a drifter just starting to work on a coal barge plying the small rivers and backwaters of Scotland. Life on the barge is very limited and basic as Joe must share tight living accomodations with the husband and wife team that own and operate the boat. It's really only a matter of a day or son and Joe decides to seduce the wife, who shows some very slight resistance to his advances. To say the trysts are unromantic, cold, and pretty matter of fact would be an understatement .... The wife and pretty well most of the women Joe meets seem to treat sex with about as much mystery and expectations as shaking hands.
  
  
  The writer and the director do not go out of their way to make these people seem appealing but rather slowly develop the shallowness of character as the viewer becomes aware that Joe had more than a passing knowledge of the unidentified girl whose dead body they pulled out of the river right after the opening credits......
  
  
  Certainly we find that most of the characters have the morals of alley cats, very limited intellectual or cummunicative skills, no real compassion for anything more than themselves ....under normal circumstances I would have hated the movie for the disgusting character traits, but, it was so well done the viewer walks away thinking ... would I have been any different in the same circumstances .... probably not ... and thats the beauty of the film ...
  
  
  
  
  
• A Unique Film With Overrated Sex and Boring Elements
  By A20NJAPECFGIR9 on 2005-03-22
  I say the film is unique because it has nothing to hold your interest but it apparently does. I haven't read the book but the movie would have been the most tastless thing since Show Girls, Disclosure and Body of Evidence if it hadn't shown the reality it had within the characters and plot of the film.
  
  The film is so gritty and the people so dirty-looking and filthy that you have to award the director for at least taking the time to show how people on an overseas barge really live. Mackenzie was true to life. He didn't sit a beautiful woman with manicured nails on the barge with a bikini like some directors would have. He chose Tilda Swinton, who may not be society's conventional beauty but carries herself in a way that's so enchanting you can see why Joe ( Ewan McGregor ) can't wait to get a piece of her. Swinton isn't beautiful but she is sexy and if you don't know the difference between the two, that's your problem. A reviewer stated that a hunk like McGregor wouldn't want Tilda Swinton. Well if you watched the film carefully, you'll see that Joe ( McGregor ) was no prize himself. Joe may have been good looking but seemed slow and slightly retarded by the way he drifted off by himself. He wasn't anywhere near Ella's intelligence. Joe was a dumb seaman and McGregor played the part well.
  
  I for one are sick of no-acting pretty faces and was glad David didn't stick one in this. Swinton is a fine actress. She and McGregor had exciting chemistry. When they had sex, I didn't find myself thinking of the actual act. I found myself reveling in the chemistry and magnitude these actors had. THIS alone keeps the film going because without this chemistry I wouldn't have watched it twice. I agree that the sex gets tiresome after the third romp and it goes from semi-romantic to XXX porn by the end of the film. Like I said, I didn't read the novel but I can't imagine it having as much sex in it as this. We didn't have to see every single time they had sex. We knew they were having an affair so enough is enough. I found the frontal nudity too realistic and not needed. It cheapened the movie. I found seeing Tilda Swinton naked completely nauseating ( not because of how she looked but because by this point it seemed that Ella didn't care about her child at all, just romping around naked like a teenager ). And no I don't think seeing Swinton naked added anything to the movie.
  
  This is a mixed bag. I bought it before seeing it so that should tell you something. If I saw it first I probably wouldn't have bought it. It's not up there with even the top 100 of my favorite films but it's not really bad, just it has to suit your particular tastes. My opinion is there was way too much sex, the actors mumbled so you couldn't hear much of what they were saying. There were too many conflicting accents that made it impossible to keep up with the characters. The flashbacks should have been done in black and white. I couldn't tell a flashback from the present until about five minutes back into the film and rhe film was way too long. If foreign noir is your thing you'll probably enjoy this. If not, skip it or watch it with your hand on the fast forward button. Believe me you'll need it at some point.
  
  
• Cold Sex in Scotland
  By A3UFCUDVASHZFU on 2005-04-07
  I watched this movie because I was dating a guy who is a huge Ewan MacGregor fan. I have always liked his performances, but I thought that this one was exceptional. It tells the story of a failed writer who has a mysterious past with a woman that he abandoned. He works on a barge and begins an affair with his bosses' wife. It sort of is a mystery, but when it all comes down to it, this movie is basically an excuse to show as much sex as possible.(I have no objection to this!) There isn't a lot of dialogue, its more of what's not said that's important, and the story isn't really fast-paced, but if you get into to feeling of it, its actually pretty good.(One of my few objections is having to look at Tilda Swinton's hairy armpit. Yuck!) Basically to top it all off, not-so-nice people in Scotland have lots of sex and you get to see plenty of Ewan MacGregor in the process.
  
  
• Joe likes many women, but it gets him in trouble.
  By AQ01Q3070LT29 on 2005-04-10
  Film includes many sexual scenes, female nudity and full frontal male nudity.
  Joe (Ewan McGregor) finds a dead woman floating towards the pier in the water. his co-worker Les (Peter Mullan) do the right thing and call the police. Joe lives with Les' family on the Atlantic Eve barge. One night he notices through a crack in the wall that Les and his wife, Ella (Tilda Swinton) are hovaing sexual problems. The next day while les is reading the newspaper at the table, Joe puts his leg onto Ella's under the table and makes a sexual motion with his hand. She stops him. That night, while the husband is playing darts at a pub, Joe makes advances to Ella again in the barge. She tells him firmly she does not want to awaken the boy. They go outside on land and commit adultery.
  Joe remembers Cathie (Emily Mortimer) who he had a sexual relationship with.
  Joe and Ella are being oh so carefree about having sex while les is up on deckk, not knowing what goes on below.
  Some strange turn of events are about to take place.
  DVD includes in "Special Features", an extended sex scene, original passage narrations by Ewan McGregor, and two audio commentaries.
  Good for you Ewan McGregor for being so brave la natural.
  
  
• Sad, sexual film that wanders around with no plot
  By A15Q9YEG1XPEJN on 2005-08-17
  To many it may seem akin to blasphemy to refer to any film with Tilda Swinton, Peter Mulan and Ewan McGregor as bad, but unfortunately, that's just what "Young Adam" is. Oh, it's full of mood and the acting is quite good, but that isn't enough to save this film from itself.
  
  Joe (Ewan McGregor) and Les (Peter Mulan) and Tilda Swinton all work a barge that Swinton owns. Les is married to her and they share a son. No one in this film is named Adam!
  
  Now, Joe and Les drag up the dead body of a young woman from the river. She is quite dead. Ostensibly this is the driving force behind the film. It isn't.
  
  What drives this film is Joe's insatiable sexual appetite. In fact, Joe merely wanders through the film without any conscience sleeping with women - married or otherwise. He's such a perv that he even sniffs one woman's bed sheets where her crotch would have been.
  
  Behind the scenes, he keeps up with the status of the investigation and subsequent trial of the person accused of murdering the young woman he and Les pulled out of the drink.
  
  There is no resolution in this film. There is no real plot - we don't learn anything new or discover some stunning revelation as a result of the finish of the film.
  
  It is more a character study never finished.
  
  Tilda Swinton is a fine actress, but even when glammed up she is very hard on the eyes. Here she wears no makeup and quite often no clothes.
  
  McGregor is doing his typical performance which is better than many actors, but not as good as could be. He seems to relish the opportunity to expose his privates on screen and in this film we see a bit more than we bargained for in the sex scenes - they are almost pornographic.
  
  At one point Swinton's son peeks through cracks in the wall to see his mother and her lover having sex. Nothing comes of this. Why did we need to see this? Shouldn't it have some bearing on the film as a whole? Nope. It's just there for effect.
  
  And that is really what this whole film is: effect. There's no plot, just a bunch of events that are held together by sex scenes.
  
  When all is said and done this film is just very very boring.
  
  
• Dark and classically Scottish
  By A2C7Y2UIH03UKJ on 2005-11-10
  Set in post WWII Scotland, Young Adam is a tale of deception and murder that creeps along like a steady rolling fog.
  
  Ewan McGregor is Joe, an emotionally absent young drifter who finds work on a barge owned by Les (Peter Mullan) and his reticent wife Ella (Tilda Swinton).
  
  When Joe and Les pull the corpse of a young woman out of a canal, it seems initially a random event for the barge workers. Police begin searching for the woman's killer while Joe finds himself drifting toward Ella. The tension between the two heats up and when a lust fuelled affair begins it becomes apparent Joe is hiding some dark secrets from his past.
  
  Although not quite a thriller, Young Adam has all the ingredients of a dark and moody drama. Scotland's steamy canals are the perfect desolate backdrop for what is basically a story about morals - those of both the community and the individual.
  
  It`s clear director David McKenzie made some inspired casting decisions when choosing his lead performers in this film, as they become the back bone of this emotional tale.
  
  Perhaps it`s McGregor's Scottish heritage that takes some of the credit for his complete embodiment of Joe; brooding, opportunistic and confident, he attracts women like the proverbial moth to the flame. McGregor's subtly in playing Joe, makes it impossible to find the seam between actor and character.
  
  Swinton dons the dowdy garb of a third generation barge owner and disappears into the strong yet vulnerable Ella. The role is a far cry from her characters in films such as Orlando and The Beach, but it seems clear by her portrayal of Ella that she revels in a challenge.
  
  Containing all the right elements Young Adam is a first rate film, however this does not mean it is comfortable to watch. Not that it should be. It's a story which explores some perilous notions most of us would choose to shy away from.
  
  Young Adam is a difficult journey but one not without its rewards.
  
  
• Mindblowingly Disgusting
  By A1KZHMGLTX4XYP on 2005-11-17
  It really was an extreme disappointment for me to see the wonderfully talented and seemingly classy Ewan McGregor in a film that I was not even able to finish watching. The sex scenes were atrocious and numerous and the plot kept getting lost between them. I felt that in order to feel sorry for Joe, I would have to see more of his character than his penis. The depth of the human psyche is more than just physicality. If Joe's outlet and comfort was sex, so be it. I didn't have to see how many times he needed sex and how it was orchestrated (which was unnerving at times, and after a particulary gross culinary incident involving custard, ketchup and sugar or flour, I hit stop and rewind, scarred forever). Truly, I admire Ewan McGregor and his great talent which was given to him by God. I do not admire his strange choice of film concerning "Young Adam". I feel the piece was below him and the next time I see him in a film I hope he is wearing all of his clothing. This film was a great disappointment--that is, if you're not a pervert.
  
  
• L'ATALANTE, SCOTTISH STYLE
  By A3R2YB0WTTB0IJ on 2007-07-07
  Based on Alexander Trocchi's Young Adam, this movie was written and directed by Scottish director David Mackenzie in 2003. Since then, David Mackenzie also directed Asylum, the fascinating tale of a woman falling in love with a mad man.
  
  Ewan McGregor is a drifter who uses to seduce every woman in sight. When his last girl-friend Emily Mortimer accidentally drowns in front of him, Ewan accepts to work on Peter Mullan's boat. Emily's corpse is found and an innocent married man is charged with the young girl's murder. Ewan seduces Tilda Swinton, his employers's wife, then even Tilda Swinton's sister while the accused is put on trial and sentenced to death.
  
  YOUNG ADAM is a "cold" movie with its characters who are making love a lot but who don't love each other. The corpse of Emily Mortimer, after two days in water, is more vibrant in its frailty than the cold bodies of Ewan McGregor and Tilda Swinton, mechanically making love under the Scottish rain. YOUNG ADAM is a film a philosopher like Albert Camus could have written. It's a smart but desperate movie.
  
  A DVD zone Ingmar Bergman is alive and well and living in Scotland.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Sexual, erotic thriller--great combo of McGregor and Swinton..
  By A3B87UZLPCF0HW on 2007-09-23
  Scotland, 1950s. Joe (McGregor) lives on a barge and engages in cold sexual encounters that only add to his sense of existential alienation. Then the body of a woman is found in the canal... The graphic content and frigid, sterile atmosphere pay homage to Trocchi's novel, and the excellent cast do justice to a minimalist script.
  
  
  
• Long Way Round
  By A3L9S1BKOCJG7D on 2004-07-26
  So many people know Ewan McGregor for his US Box Office hits such as Big Fish, Moulin Rouge, Down With Love and of course the Star Wars Trilogy but Young Adam is the real Ewan. In a world where most movies are mindless junk and clones of one another, here is a film that stands out and makes you take notice. Gripping and moving and yes a little disturbing, this is destined to be a cult classic and talked about for a long time. His list of films is long and varied with most of them being bittersweet. I am SO glad to see that even after huge success, he has remained true to himself. He is in it for the love of the art of acting and film, not box office sales or world wide recognition. He is the consummate actor's actor. This film is OUTSTANDING! Right from the beginning it draws you in and by the end you feel as though you've gone through your own ordeal. But what am ordeal! Ewan is major eye candy and it looks like Halloween & Christmas just rolled in.
  
  
• A racy-but-dull variation on "Crime and Punishment"
  By A32XW50ILWOXNO on 2004-09-20
  The lead character in "Young Adam" is a guy named Joe, and though the movie is set in 1950s Scotland, we all know a version of him: Joe's the guy who can't seem to get out of other women's beds.
  
  Wounded, self-hating, Joe is smarter than his working class trappings but unable to rise above it - he aspires to be a writer but is shown throwing his typewriter into the ocean. His primary gift seems to be his allure to women: Two basically throw themselves at Joe, while two others are more than willing to be convinced. One banishes her husband for Joe's bedroom talents, while another dies because of it. In between these women Joe is ambivalent; it all feels pretty good at a crude level but it's also a tremendous hassle when these women begin to expect more.
  
  Ewan McGregor plays Joe in a daparture from his usual, good-natured performances. Joe works on a coal barge with a couple, Ella and Les, (Tilda Swinton and Peter Cillian) when, one morning, he finds a dead woman in the water. Joe seems to know her, and Ella seems to know that Joe knows. "Young Adam" being the kind of movie where a great deal of work goes on without much being said, Joe and Ella blot out this development with a lot of sex in several different positions.
  
  Writer/director David MacKenzie intercuts their affair with a earlier relationship in Joe's life with Cathie (Emily Mortimer) a demure, clever girl he meets on a beach, and long, lovely shots of the barge passing through canals of verdant Scotland. Joe and Ella's sex is desparate and lustful and not a bit discreet; it's inevitable that Les will bring this triangle to an end, though the results are not what you'd expect.
  
  And then there is a suspect in the woman's death. Joe becomes interested in the trial. He is certain, and so are we, the defendant is innocent. And yet - Joe is not quite willing to present the truth. As intensely as he follows it, the possibility of an innocent man's death is not enough for him to act. Why? What broke in Joe that can't be fixed?
  
  This variation on "Crime and Punishment" would be more effective if, frankly, the movie didn't take a sex break every ten minutes. What are their purpose, exactly? They're aren't erotic. Or emotionally charged. The central murder plot is not served by them. One is so bizarre, involving ketchup and other condiments, that it makes the butter scene from "Last Tango In Paris" look quaint. McGregor and Swinton, whom one would call brave if she hadn't already played a man in "Orlando" all those years ago, mostly project an angry desire to break up the dullness of barge work. "Young Adam" has the intercourse and post-coital brooding down pat. What's missing is the point.
  
  Besides, other women in the film seem to betray the mores of the 1950s. After all how many housewives stand stark naked in the living room tub in front of an open window? I dunno. Maybe it was different in Scotland.
  
  
  
• Grim, Ugly, dull!
  By A8T21IR0E5JJI on 2004-10-14
  Major hottie Ewan McGregor must have been desperate to show the world that he's a serious actor in this depressing, colorless excursion into non-erotic romance. As drifter Joe, we're asked to believe that this simmering hunk wants to have sex with pasty-faced, matted hair Tilda Swinton, who looks like a refugee from a TB hospital. Bony, shapeless and hideous, she's in the enviable position of being the lust object of Ewan. She reacts to his seduction like a clam with as much dialogue as you would expect from a clam. The love scenes are grim and gritty. Don't expect any passion or glamor and although McGregor does flash us once again with full-frontal gifts, there's no sensuality. If you want a movie experience that's sexless, loveless and colorless, then this is the one you might enjoy.
  
  
• Grim and Joyless (And Who is Young Adam?)
  By A1VJ7HYM1EC94M on 2005-07-21
  What a dry, dour, charmless film is "Young Adam." The story is bleak, the characters, almost all of them despicable are impossible to route for. Tilda Swinton, an actress I normally find attractive, is here, as Ella, a ghastly, tough, worn out creature and a bit of a shrew. Joe, as portrayed by Ewan McGregor (one of my favorite actors) gives his all as a too young to be this world weary, callow man who, having given up his dreams and fantasies of a better life, aimlessly goes through life, with no honor or self respect. For a bit of adventure he bangs nearly every woman in sight. In fact, a betting game can be played whenever a new female character is introduced as to how many minutes before we're having to see their contorted naked bodies going at it
  
  Bargemates Joe and Les's (an excellent performance by multi talented actor/writer/director Peter Mullan, who's "Orphans" is one of the best things from Scotland in ages) discovery of a dead girl at the film's start, unravels the story in achingly slow fashion and paints an increasingly disturbing picture of Joe. One always wants to route for a film's hero but "Young Adam" doesn't have one. The lead character has nothing redeemable about him and it's depressing to watch a film where not a single shred of hope or decency can break through the grim, gray bleakness. If you like this sort of thing, you'll love "Young Adam" - as for me, I hated it - something I rarely say about any film. Even the beauty of the way the film was shot (it is visually brilliant) couldn't save this for me. Blech.
  
  
• Full Review!
  By A3TR6ZV2OAS7YC on 2005-08-24
  Movie: Young Adam
  
  Rating: [Edited Version] Rated R for strong sexual content, some disturbing behavior and language. [Uncut version] Rated NC-17 for some explicit sexual content.
  
  Starring: Ewan McGregor, Tilda Winton, Emily Mortimer, Peter Mullen.
  
  Summary: Based on the book by Alexander Trocchi, the story takes place somewhere in the 1950's and tells the story of Joe (McGregor) who doesn't have a plan of where he's going in his life and is a drifter currently working as a second-hand man with barge owners Leslie (Mullen) and his given-up-on-life wife, Ella (Tilda).
  
  One day while at a stop on the barge, Joe happens to have discovered a woman's lifeless corpse wearing only a thin petticoat floating in the river. Both he and Leslie decide to fish it out and lay it down on the barge. Leslie goes to get a blanket to cover the body, and we soon see a questionable shot where Joe places his hand on the woman's bare skin and his expression is not easy to say, but the viewers watching will know Joe knows more about this woman's body than he reveals.
  
  As questions are asked and the investigation for a suspect begins, Joe suddenly for some reason looks at Leslie's wife Ella in a whole different way. It is not fully explained but Joe unexpectedly starts a full-blown affair with Ella right under Leslie's nose.
  
  As the present story continues, we are eventually taken back into Joe's past, the first scene of him meeting Cathy, of who was also that dead woman's corpse. Again, Joe begins an odd affair with her that's both disturbing and unpredictable. As we all know, this woman Cathy eventually dies and arouses the question: Was it suicide? Murder? An accident? Only Joe knows what happened the night of her death.
  
  Opinions: In simpler words, you'll either love or hate this movie. Half of the critics I see love this movie and the story of one man and others feel it's pointless and the many sex scenes of the movie weren't needed. In my opinion, I loved this movie!
  
  I have been interested in psychology and the study of human behavior for over a year now and this movie is so compelling and so confusing, but if you're a person who will take time to try to understand Joe's character more, the more you'll like the movie.
  
  Just about every scene of this movie is questionable, and Joe is very unpredictable, which is what makes this movie so intriguing. The movie never tells you what Joe is thinking, only on the outside which makes him so interesting.
  
  This movie isn't a who-did-it mystery concerning Cathy's death. The sum of the story focuses on Joe: his view on life, his usual questionable actions, and how he uses sex as a weapon while running from himself. After watching this movie, you may actually feel bad for Joe, even though the whole movie shows many shocking things he had done in the past. One scene involves an intense sexual assault involving Joe with catsup bottles and a bag of sugar. As David Mackenzie says, "Joe is a man on the run, from himself and from his conscience. He is rebellious, irresponsible and dangerous...He is a character who is about as far from innocent as you can get, but he is also not guilty."
  
  One thing to also mention concerning the sex scenes. The sex in this movie that makes it stand out from other movies is that the characters seem to have no intimacy and it's often very cold sex, as I said before, a way of Joe to run from himself and make him feel better, although it never works. This sort of works for Swinton's character, Ella. She's a woman who has given up on life and happiness, which was why she fell for Joe so easily.
  
  So to sum it all up, this movie is not a happy one and very dark. The sex is even not enjoyable, but that's not to say the movie's not enjoyable. This movie is not meant to be enjoyable and the ending will leave people in thoughts. I can't exactly say what makes this movie so intriguing but the whole aspect of Joe's human flaw and ambiguity will make many feel interested in wanting to know this man better and we may sometimes think, "We could've been in the same situation, and wouldn't we have done the same as him?"
  
  Total: 9.7 out of 10 (This is a movie you'll either love-it or hate-it, but I for one, I loved it!)
  
  
  

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