About Adam received new life after Kate Hudson became almost famous. But while Hudson plays a key role this film is, quite literally, about Adam, as played wonderfully by Stuart Townsend. The film begins with young Irish singing waitress Lucy, as played by Hudson with an Irish accent that comes and goes, meeting the mysterious Adam. She immediately falls for him and their new romance proceeds happily along. Lucy brings Adam home to meet the family and here things get turned on their head. After seeing the story play out from Lucy's perspective we go back and revisit the same time period from different points of view, those of Lucy's two sisters and brother. It soon becomes apparent that Adam is not quite what he seems and that he has become much closer to Lucy's family than she would ever believe.

Frances O'Connor as the quiet, bookish Laura and Charlotte Bradley as the unhappily married Alice will each strike up their own serious relationship with Adam. As we see each of the sisters' stories unfold it puts a new spin on all that we have seen before. Even Lucy's brother finds himself oddly attracted to Adam while Lucy floats along completely oblivious to all that is swirling around her. Each of the key roles is performed well and enough time is given to allow us to explore the motivations of each of these characters. If we didn't really get to know these people and what drives them, everyone involved could come off rather badly, especially Townsend's Adam. But the director makes each character sympathetic enough and it all ties together very well.

A clever script, mostly terrific acting, intriguing characters, wonderful Irish scenery and a very smart plot device that adds a unique twist to everything...About Adam has a lot going for it. It's a smart, funny, enjoyable ride.

'About Adam' is billed as a comedy but it's safer to classify it as a farce. It's set in Dublin and it focuses on a family of three sisters and one brother who all become besotted with Adam, a charming Lothario, who insinuates himself into their lives. Unlike most American films where men end up chasing a beautiful woman, 'About Adam' turns the tables and we're treated to the farcical machinations of women who can no longer control their passions when attracted to that one special 'mysterious' man.

'About Adam' has a Rashomon-like plot where the story is told from the successive points of view of each sibling. We start off from Lucy's point of view (Kate Hudson) who meets Adam at her place of employment (where she works as a waitress/singer). Lucy is looking for a man who will sweep her off her feet. I'm not sure how Adam manages to press all the right buttons of these women, but they all become besotted with him. The initial seduction of Lucy goes on for way too long and after awhile her obsession with him becomes tiresome (the first 30 minutes is the weakest part of the film).

After about half an hour into the film, conflict finally emerges. Soon after meeting Lucy, Adam decides to seduce Lucy's sister, Laura (Frances O'Connor). Laura is more intellectual than Lucy, studying for her PhD in poetry. And of course Adam is familiar with the very obscure poetry Lucy has been studying at school and recites it to her, pressing her buttons. Before you know it, Laura is stripping off HER clothes for him! Adam isn't finished. Brother David finds himself attracted to Adam and fantasizes having a bi-sexual affair with him. He doesn't actually act upon his fantasies but Adam somehow engenders a passionate spark in him and he ends up with a new invigorated love life with his girlfriend.

Finally there's Alice, trapped in a loveless marriage who also has a child. Alice is aware that Adam has been playing around with BOTH of her sisters and when she finally gives in to Adam before his marriage to Lucy, it's on HER terms. She knows it's just a fling, but the brief affair with Adam awakens her long repressed sexual passions.

For those who were 'offended' by this film, they completely miss the purpose of farce. In the words of the noted drama critic Eric Bentley, in farce, one is permitted the outrage without the consequences! Farce allows its audience to experience deep-seated desires vicariously! While the sisters feel there is some deeper meaning in Adam's name (noting that Adam is the name of the progenitor of all men), one should liken him more to the Greek God Pan, famous for his sexual powers and often depicted with an erect phallus.

The world of 'About Adam' features no recriminations. While some feelings are ruffled, none of the characters suffer any permanent psychic damage. Even Laura, probably the most besotted and jealous of the sisters, accepts Adam's marriage to Lucy and we see her holding hands with her school supervisor at the end of the film, now ready for a mature romance in the real world. And although Adam is always lying to each of the women about his background, the lies are white lies--inconsequential; again resulting in no harm (Adam even suggests to Lucy who is having second thoughts about getting married just as they're about to tie the knot, that people don't always have to know each other's secrets; that way, petty jealousies are averted!).

'About Adam' is like a gentle breeze. It's a light-hearted farce not to be taken too seriously (for all of you offended by its alleged 'immorality', I say get a life!). In addition, it's an original take on the desire for passion in our lives. On the other hand, by the end of the film, we realize that the film's tension has dissipated. All that fun 'passion' unleashed in each sibling by the charming rake Adam, has become a bit repetitious and overdone. In other words, we get the point! By the end there are no more surprises! Since 'About Adam' is a bit offbeat and good-natured, I give it a '6'. But honestly, while 'About Adam' is definitely worth watching, one viewing is enough.

'About Adam' is a male counterpart to Gerry Stembridge's classic TV drama, 'the Truth about Clare', his innovative film about Ireland and abortion. In that film, three characters tried to grope, through memories, prejudices, egotism, blindness etc., the truth about the title character, a pregnant woman who died following an abortion in England (it is still illegal in Ireland); here, four characters try to capture the essence of the elusive Adam, a jack of all relationships but mastered by none.

A knowledge of Stembridge's previous, more sober film gives this breezy comedy a darker edge - its tale of a family being given everything they sexually desire is an appropriate metaphor for a society like Ireland currently going through an unheard-of economic boom, creating a culture of extreme self-interest. The dangers of this self-interest are plain to see - a few weeks ago another Stembridge TV satire was aired about Ireland's racist treatment of refugees.

We have never had this much prosperity before, and we don't want anyone else sharing it. Similarly, the last person this film is 'about' is Adam. Like 'Clare', the film is structured around the personal narratives of each character involved with Adam - Lucy (Kate Hudson, and, I'm afraid, the hype for once is spot-on - she IS adorable), the spontaneous, singing waitress with a new boyfriend every week, who finally settles down to a 'great passion'; Laura (Frances O'Conner - can there be any doubt now that she is our finest actress?), the pretentious, uptight English post-grad doing a thesis on repressed Victorian women writers who is 'loosened up' by Adam, her assumptions revealed to be a lie; David, the brother, dating a prim virgin, enlisting Adam's help and finding himself sexually attracted to him; Alice, the elder sister, trapped in a prosperous marriage to a pompous dullard, intrigued by Adam, but unwilling to lose control like her siblings that easy.

Each narrative is tailored to each witness' personality (like 'Dracula', an ironic allusion throughout), in the way each story is shaped; in the stylistic devices employed; in tone; but, most importantly, in the perception of Adam. 'Clare', for all its excellence, played to that age-old myth, the mystery, inscrutability, unattainability, unknowability of woman. 'Adam', the first man, remorselessly documented throughout thousands of years of masculine culture, is suddenly the mystery, the woman, the sphinx, the passive black hole.

Adam (which may not even be his name) is the blank onto which the various characters project their fantasies - he is literally what they want him to be. Naturally, plot points overlap within the four stories, and our interpretation of them changes with greater knowledge, but, paradoxically, our knowledge of Adam diminishes, helped by the lies and stories he spins about himself. Who is Adam? Besides the obvious pleasure of bedding three beautiful women, why does he do it? In fact, forget that 'besides', that's probably your answer.

As well as alluding to his own work, Stembridge cleverly remodels two other classics of sexual amorphousness. Like Terence Stamp in Pasolini's 'Theorem', Adam is a stranger who enters a bourgeois household where everyone has a stereotypical role they adhere to, and which Adam smashes, forcing them to review their lives and the assumptions they live by. This has a liberating effect, but also a joyful one - this is a remarkably angst-free film. With his blank good looks, his white suit, and bleached blonde crop, Stuart Townsend (hi Celia!) is a ringer for the young Stamp.

The other allusion is to 'Alfie', that freewheelingly amoral sexual cad, lying his way through a score of beautiful women. Except Adam is the anti-Alfie, he does not humiliate or diminish women, they're the ones who develop; and he lacks the controlling power of narration; but he does limit them, reducing them to 'mere' sexual urge.

Significantly, both these films were key artefacts of the 1960s, and there is an optimism, a freshness, a vigour, a lightness to 'About Adam' that resembles the swinging 60s, as if Ireland, belatedly, has entered its own hedonistic decade. Both films, equally significantly, were warnings or analyses of that decade's fatal complacency, and in the exhilerating shots of Dublin that dot the film we cannot fail to notice the looming cranes, the building activity that suggests this story isn't quite finished, this culture hasn't quite reached maturity.