adult adoption movie reviews

Film review: Adult Adoption is a film about connection

Writer and star Ellie Moon crafts a fascinating story about relationships in all their oddity, messiness and necessity

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Look up images of orphans, or just imagine one. I’ll bet they’re young. From Oliver Twist to modern refugees, the term conjures up kids.

Film review: Adult Adoption is a film about connection Back to video

But not Rosy, the main character in this Toronto-shot film from first-time feature director Karen Knox. Rosy is in her mid-twenties, and grew up in foster care without ever being adopted. So at 18 she “aged out” of the system and has been on her own ever since.

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Rosy is played by Ellie Moon, who also wrote the screenplay. With her long hair, pastel wardrobe and a distracted air, she looks like she’d be at home in one of Miranda July’s films. And, like those movies, the subject matter has a lot to do with human relationships, in all their oddity, messiness and necessity.

Rosy misses having a mom and dad. Her coworker (Leah Doz), who talks to her mom every day, suggests she find someone to adopt her. Then she can go into therapy and have something to talk about there. It’s a half-joking suggestion, and the film itself flirts with comedic beats throughout. There’s an awkwardly hilarious – or hilariously awkward – first date with someone she meets online, which is also where she goes looking for prospective parents.

But for the most part the mood of Adult Adoption is one of seriousness with a side of quirk. Rosy connects with a fellow orphan from her past (Chelsea Muirhead), only to learn that she might have fallen into the clutches of a cult. She finds one possible parental figure who – oops! – starts to see her as romantic rather than filial material.

Another proves to be less maternal that Rosy wants, which is when she starts to realize that perhaps her own needs are unrealistic. After all, how many of us get even a single chance to decide who are parents are going to be? You get what you get, and you don’t get upset.

The film’s plot is ultimately a little thin – the cult, for instance, feels a bit too spot-on Handmaid’s Tale , and the resolution of that storyline oddly simple – but there is still much to admire, most particularly in Moon’s committed performance. And as far as subject matter goes, Adult Adoption is very much in a creative category all its own.

Adult Adoption opens Jan. 14 in Toronto; Jan. 20 in Vancouver; Feb. 3 in Winnipeg; and Feb. 28 on demand.

3 stars out of 5

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Adult Adoption

Where to Watch

Ellie Moon (Rosy) Rebecca Northan (Jane) Leah Doz (Helen) Donald MacLean Jr. (Dan) Michael Healey (Brian) Craig Lauzon (David) Chelsea Muirhead (Nola) Jennifer Wigmore (Susan) Perrie Voss (Terri-Lynn) Gwenlyn Cumyn (Paula)

Rosy, who aged out of foster care, sets out to find the love of a parent figure online.

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‘Adopting Audrey’ Review: Jena Malone Puts Herself Up for Adoption

Christian zilko.

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For as long as there has been independent cinema, there have been protagonists who aren’t quite ready for adulthood. From “Slacker” to “Frances Ha” to approximately 78 percent of rejected Sundance submissions in any given year, there’s a time honored tradition of filmmakers finding inspiration in those looking to squeeze a few more years out of their adolescence.

But with each passing film about an artsy type who can’t get their shit together, the pressure on the next filmmaker to justify the existence of their belated coming-of-age story increases. When your audience has seen these tropes as often as we have, you have to offer something more than “wow, turns out adulting is really hard!” Unfortunately, “Adopting Audrey” falls short of that standard. M. Cahill’s new film about a woman who puts herself up for adoption in her early thirties is too unintentionally strange to be an effective drama, but too determined to be one to succeed as a comedy. The result is a drab retreading of well-worn beats without much interesting substance to show for the effort.

When we meet Audrey, it’s immediately clear that her existence leaves a lot to be desired. Floating through life in upstate New York, she works a miserable job at a call center (that she’s soon fired from), lives in a sad apartment (that she’s soon forced to vacate), and gets most of her human contact from an utterly unremarkable fuckbuddy (who soon breaks up with her). Estranged from her family and tired of the vagabond life that led her to hold seven jobs in the past two years, she finds herself at a crossroads, armed with nothing more than the realization that her current approach isn’t working.

Audrey’s one source of joy is watching cute animal YouTube videos on her phone each night, and the algorithm eventually shows her an ad for something called adult adoption. The trend allows young adults to seek a second set of parents to help guide them through the challenges of adulthood. Thinking she has nothing to lose, Audrey throws her hat into the ring.

After a few unsuccessful interviews, she meets Sunny (Emily Kuroda) and Otto (Robert Hunger-Bühler), two remarried widows looking to expand their family. Or at least, that’s what Sunny is looking for. She meets with Audrey without telling her stereotypically gruff German husband that she wants to adopt an adult, assuming that he’ll come around once she introduces them.

It would be a stretch to say the plan “works,” but it goes far better than it should have. Otto doesn’t quite understand the idea, but can’t find a reason to object to it either. They agree to “adopt” Audrey for a six-month test run, though it’s never quite clear how anyone (including the audience) is supposed to benefit from the arrangement.

Audrey doesn’t live with her new “parents,” but frequently shows up for dinner with Sunny and Otto (and his aging mother) and helps with some household chores. Eventually, she and Otto make plans to build a backyard treehouse for his grandchildren. The project leads to several allegedly humorous scenes that resemble a scrapped CBS sitcom pilot with the laugh tracks removed, as well as some father-daughter bonding between Otto and Audrey.

When Otto isn’t going comically apeshit about steaks being undercooked at a barbecue or doing a weird Chevy Chase impression as he gets sawdust in his face, he finds time to listen to Audrey’s problems and offer some wisdom. We learn that Audrey blames her failure to launch on the fact that her pet chicken was run over by a car when she was eight years old, and Otto provides some tough love as he encourages her to move on from her two decades of poultry trauma. She also loses a finger and gets it reattached at some point, but that’s neither here nor there. Few things are truly resolved, but both Audrey and her parents end up finding their lives slightly improved by the experiment.

In a meandering, character-driven film, a compelling protagonist can cover a multitude of structural sins. Unfortunately, “Adopting Audrey” doesn’t have one. Not only are Audrey’s career and personal life going nowhere, but she’s not devoting the lost energy to anything else either. She shows no ambition (her solution to losing her job is finding a second set of parents!), demonstrates few real skills, and mostly squanders the opportunities that she does get. She doesn’t have enough of a personality to make her aimless wandering seem entertaining, nor has she faced a serious enough challenge to generate much sympathy. In the end, you’d be forgiven for wondering why anyone felt compelled to give this slice of her life the cinematic treatment.

None of which is to say that Jena Malone is bad in the titular role. Quite the opposite! The actress finds a way to inject some movie star sparkle into an utterly unremarkable character, elevating the film into something that often borders on watchable. Her performance is both a testament to her charisma and a chilling reminder of what the movie could have turned into with a less competent star.  

Much like its eponymous protagonist, “Adopting Audrey” makes no attempts to set the world on fire. Cahill demonstrates minimal storytelling ambition, filling the 90 minutes with standard shot-reverse shot dialogue and sitcom-esque establishing shots. And the film never quite figures out what story it wants to tell, fluctuating between attempts at serious drama and something that, for lack of a better word, could probably be described as comedy. In its best moments, “Adopting Audrey” recognizes how hard it can be to fit all of the pieces of your life together to form something coherent. Unfortunately, the film suffers from the exact same problem.

Vertical Entertainment will release “Adopting Audrey” in theaters and on VOD on Friday, August 26.

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Adopting Audrey review – Jena Malone shines in kooky adult adoption tale

Her nuanced portrayal of a directionless thirtysomething seeking new parents redeems the annoyingly implausible tale unfolding around her

H ere’s another cutesy-sentimental American indie about a character struggling to grow up, and drifting with no real sense of what to do in life. Adopting Audrey takes it one further, turning the quirky dial up to 11 with its story about a woman who puts herself up for adoption in her 30s. (Adult adoption is legal in the US, though not in the UK)

Audrey is played by Jena Malone with warmth and thoughtfulness; her performance the most distinctive thing about this otherwise forgettable movie. Audrey is single and often unable to pay the rent, flitting from job to job. You sense depression or loneliness creeping in, spending her evenings watching cute animal videos. One night YouTube’s algorithm pings her from puppy adoption videos to ones about human adult adoption; Audrey decides to give it a go.

After a string of failed first dates with potential parents, she meets a retired couple who might just be her forever family. This is Sunny (Emily Kuroda) and Otto (Robert Hunger-Bühler), both widowed when they met a few years ago. Otto is a cranky retired Nasa engineer, who has a terrible relationship with his own adult children. But with Audrey he opens up a little and begins to reflect on his overbearing parenting style.

What I found irritating about the film is how the characters behave in ways that bear no resemblance to the real world. Take Otto’s kids, who are mildly irked by Audrey’s arrival, but not remotely alarmed. Surely they would be straight on the phone to a lawyer t0 find out their inheritance rights? Or at the very least grilling Audrey about her intentions?

Still, there’s something so winning about Malone. Her Audrey is nice and eager-to-please as she puts up with cantankerous Otto. But Malone suggests a kind of passive-aggressive side to her gentle manner, showing us that Audrey’s style is to take the crap for so long, then walk away. Her engrossing, authentic-feeling performance is the reason to watch.

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A cast of Toronto theatre veterans save indie film Adult Adoption from becoming a cinematic orphan

This article was published more than 1 year ago. Some information may no longer be current.

Ellie Moon in director Karen Knox’s Adult Adoption. Courtesy of levelFILM

• Adult Adoption
• Directed by Karen Knox
• Written by Ellie Moon
• Starring Ellie Moon, Rebecca Northan and Michael Healey
• Classification N/A; 93 minutes
• Opens in select theatres Jan. 14

Critic’s Pick

The moment you enter the world of Adult Adoption ’s protagonist Rosy, it’s tempting to label the entire film as “quirky” – from the pastel-hued cinematography and thrift-store wardrobe to the electropop soundtrack and Rosy’s awkward mannerisms. But bolstered by a cast of Toronto theatre veterans, filmmaker Karen Knox’s directorial debut delivers a narrative that is more complex than twee. That’s in large part thanks to a clever screenplay by award-winning playwright Ellie Moon that keeps viewers guessing – by turns wincing or chuckling as Rosy tries to find her way.

Rosy, played by Moon, is a 25-year-old bank employee who aged out of the foster-care system and has since managed to carve out an adult life for herself – though the shiny stickers covering her laptop and cupboards full of Kraft Dinner suggest otherwise. It is clear something’s missing – her clingy interactions with her departing boss and desperate hookup with an online date underscore her intense loneliness.

What to watch in 2023: Our favourite new movies

When a colleague suggests looking into adult adoption, Rosy signs up to a service online that connects her with prospective “parents,” like Brian (Michael Healey) and Jane (Rebecca Northan). But she quickly finds out that neither is what she wants or needs them to be.

Moon is in nearly every frame of the film, embodying Rosy’s needy inner child in a gangly adult body with a theatre actor’s physicality – even small gestures, like Rosy’s fumbling inability to open sugar packets, become imbued with meaning. With her penchant for self-destructive behaviour and socially inept interactions, Rosy isn’t exactly a likeable character, and yet Moon manages to portray her as a deeply human one.

Moon’s performance is strongest when she’s playing off other theatre mainstays including Healey and Northan. Where some of Rosy’s awkwardness feels a bit overdone in solo scenes, her encounters with the two people who she thought could give her the family she’s been missing are suffused with a wide-eyed hopefulness – until Brian’s interest becomes more than paternal, and there might be a reason why Jane is estranged from her own biological daughter. Healey’s nice-guy-turned-creepy-old-dude and Northan’s day-drinking teacher become more than mere caricatures in the hands of both actors.

Chelsea Muirhead and Moon in Adult Adoption. Courtesy of levelFILM

Finding the balance between eccentric and emotional can be tricky, and Moon’s narrative doesn’t always succeed at walking that fine line. For instance, a subplot involving Rosy’s friend from their former group home falling prey to a cult feels tacked on. But it’s clear both writer and director are having fun subverting rom-com conventions – with an emphasis on the comedy aspect. Moon’s script is full of unexpected deadpan exchanges: “Now is not a great time for me to have a boyfriend,” Rosy stammers to her one-night stand. “I’m going to have to agree with you on that,” he responds with a perfectly straight face.

Knox, herself an actor and writer (and creator/director of the CBC series Homeschooled ), gives the actors space to unfurl their characters’ layered motivations, creating a dreamy but grounded mood. That approach is emphasized by J. Stephens’ hazy, muted cinematography that highlights the urban setting while echoing Rosy’s evolving feelings. Similarly, the soundtrack by indie-pop band Stars’ frontman Torquil Campbell plays with tone based on where we find Rosy in her journey: Early on, high-pitched hyperpop fills her headphones to boost her spirits, while toward the end of the film, the gorgeous Stars ballad The Very Thing plays as she finds some semblance of peace on a sunlit stroll, surrounded by flowering trees.

For all its quirks, at its heart Adult Adoption is a thoughtful coming-of-age story that will have you rooting for its complicated heroine. As Rosy’s self-pity gives way to self-awareness, she reminds us that sometimes the thing we’re looking for can be found deep within ourselves.

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• Film Festivals , Films

Adult Adoption: Film Review

• Claire Fulton
• March 8, 2022

Adult Adoption is a charming, semi-surreal debut that uses the desperate search for a parental figure to emphasise the importance of self-worth.

At first glance, Karen Knox’s Adult Adoption seems to be a film about craving connection, about feeling lonely and desperate for a stabilising ‘parental’ influence. It emphasises the lingering traumas a childhood of being passed from one foster home to another can inflict upon an adult. It emphasises how feeling unwanted, that you’re simply too much or not enough for a ‘forever’ home, can affect the way in which relationships are formed and can manifest into attachment and abandonment issues. But ultimately, this charmingly off-beat debut from writer and star Ellie Moon is a film about coming to terms with self-worth , with realising that a family can often be ‘found’ and non-traditional, and that a stabilising influence can just as easily come from within.

Rosie (Moon) struggles with relationships, be they professional, platonic or romantic. Having ‘aged out’ of the foster care system as a teen, a friend suggests she try looking online for adult adoption services , to find the parents she so desperately craves. After undertaking a bizarre speed-dating-esque ritual wherein she has dinner dates with prospective parents, she meets Jane (Rebecca Northan), a woman who Rosie envisions fitting her carefully constructed ‘mom’ role perfectly. But it doesn’t evolve into the fairy-tale ending Rosie might have hoped, and leads to the discovery that family is what Rosie makes it , and that she might just might have belonged somewhere all along.

There’s a childlike quality to the opening of Adult Adoption , with Rosie’s bedroom being an explosion of pink and the scene depicting her handmaking a glitter-covered card for the retirement of a colleague. It sets the tone that Knox and Moon keep up for the entire film; a surrealist, hyper-reality dreamlike vibe that manages to feel tethered, even as it becomes clear that Rosie is feeling anything but. Her attachment issues and deep-rooted loneliness mean she’s vulnerable, almost immature, despite making a seemingly successful life for herself with a steady job, apartment and romantic endeavours. It’s Rosie’s craving to fill that parental void that drives the film towards its conclusion, the slow but steady growing-up that happens visually as well as thematically, as Rosie comes to realise that her life isn’t as lacking as she thought it was.

It’s a really pleasant debut from Moon, who establishes a unique voice and delivers a really engaging and empathetic – but crucially not pathetic – performance as Rosie. The film’s underlying message is somewhat two-fold: firstly, it’s a rejection of the idea that as an adult, the desire for the stability, comfort and nourishment from a parental figure, regardless of a blood relation, is something to be ashamed of. Secondly, it’s a film that emphasises the importance of cultivating the ability to stabilise, comfort and nourish one’s self.

It doesn’t make Rosie out to be weird, bizarre or something to pity as she clings to the idea of a parent, googles ‘nice things to do for your mom’ and places intense pressure on her relationships to fulfil the roles and function exactly as she has envisioned. It shows her as a human with flaws and the lingering after effects of a traumatic childhood – even if it wasn’t as bad as some of the statistics might have some believe. It shows her as someone realising the competence and confidence to be a successful person exists within her, that it isn’t damaged, but also still struggling with a lifetime of missing that ‘ideal’ figure to connect with.

The final affirmation of Adult Adoption – “I am the creator of my own life, I am my own ancestors” – summarily encapsulates the film’s thematic and emotional throughline. But Knox and Moon also don’t shy away from the realities of loneliness , of struggling with connection and the weight of that parental void. It’s a charming film; an impressive, upbeat debut and a sure sign of interesting things to come from Ellie Moon on the big screen.

Adult Adoption had its World Premiere at the 2022 Glasgow Film Festival on 8 March, 2022 , and will be screened again on 9 March.

• TAGS: Glasgow Film Festival

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‘Adult Adoption’: Glasgow Review

By Amber Wilkinson 2022-03-08T19:30:00+00:00

Actor and playright Ellie Moon wrote and stars in this quirky comedy drama about a care leaver seeking adult adoption

Source: Courtesy of Glasgow Film Festival

‘Adult Adoption’

Dir: Karen Knox. Canada. 2022. 90 mins.

If there’s a sure-fire way to secure a complex role in a movie, it’s writing it yourself and Canadian-British star Ellie Moon – who already written a string of plays – does exactly that here, teaming up with actor/showrunner-turned-director Karen Knox for this quirky comedy drama about a young woman finding her way in the world some years after ageing out of foster care. Tapping into the relatable opposing fears of fitting in and being yourself, this sweet-natured film could easily find favour with festivals and indie distributors in addition to being a showcase for Moon’s onscreen abilities.

Embraces the often unexpectedly warm messiness of real life.

Rosy (Moon) is now in her mid-20s, but you might not guess that by looking at the soft toys in her pink explosion of a bedroom, the stickers that dance up the wall of her workstation at the telephone banking operation where she works, or the handmade, glittery leaving card she has just crafted for her retiring boss. Rosy has an energy that vacillates between childlike enthusiasm and nervous anxiety but is, in no sense, a hopeless case. She’s holding down a decent job and is liked by her co-workers, but there’s a sense of adolescent naivety and clumsiness about Rosy as she both struggles with the bigness of relationships and the smallness of opening packets of sugar. She has a longing for connection but also harbours fears about it: she is as likely to bolt from human touch in her yoga class as she is to ask a random upset stranger if they’d like a hug.

As she makes tentative dating moves, resulting in a hook up with Dan (Donald Maclean Jr) – who achieves almost pixie dream boy levels of niceness – Rosy also opens up to her colleague Helen (Leah Doz), about her past. Helen, who has a thing for healing crystals, therapy and calling her mum, suggests Rosy try to find adults to adopt her because, after all, “everything’s a thing” now. It’s a scene that emphasises Moon’s knack for capturing the often awkward sweetness of human interactions, with Helen earnest yet clumsy in a way that isn’t so far removed from Rosy despite her easier upbringing.

As Rosy takes online steps to meet a prospective “dad” Brian (Michael Healey) and, separately, a “mum” Jane (Rebecca Northan), she also becomes increasingly concerned about a childhood group home friend, Nola (Chelsea Muirhead), who is trying to transfer cash to a suspicious-sounding “new family”. While this may be one plot strand too many, Knox, stepping up to features after several shorts, ensures we stick with Rosy, often letting her face or her body language fill the frame. High energy, emotionally raw hyperpop music from the likes of Casey MQ that she listens to on her headphones also cues the audience into Rosy’s energy.

Rosy’s encounters are viewed from her character’s perspective so that, like her, we’re unsure as to the motivations of Dan, Brian and Jane, an ambivalence that adds an underlying tension to the film’s more comic moments. Moon’s playwrighting history pokes through the script occasionally, as she sometimes struggles to make the connecting moments between scenes flow freely.

Once she’s in a scene itself, however, she strikes a good balance between everyday absurdity and underlying emotion. The film finds laughs, for example, in the ridiculously ornate food served up at the place where Rosy first meets Brian, but also poignancy in a knitted blanket which will teach Rosy that rejection might not always be the end of the world.  Adult Adoption is scattered with many such little lessons about connections found in unexpected places without labouring the point, and embraces the often unexpectedly warm messiness of real life.

Production company/sales: Keme Productions, [email protected]

Producer: Kristina Esposito

Screenplay: Ellie Moon

Production design: Talia Missaghi

Cinematography: J. Stevens

Editing: Mina Sewell Mancuso

Music: Torquil Campbell

Main cast: Ellie Moon, Rebecca Northan, Leah Doz, Chelsea Muirhead, Donald MacLean Jr., Michael Healey

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Adult adoption.

2022 Directed by Karen Knox

Rosy is a 25-year-old bank teller who ‘aged out’ of the foster care system at 18 and has since managed to build a solid yet unspectacular life for herself. Desperate to fill that parental void, she seeks out an online service that connects older adults looking for adult surrogate children. In turn, this takes Rosy on a surreal journey to find that familial love she has long been searching for.

Ellie Moon Rebecca Northan Leah Doz Donald MacLean Jr. Michael Healey Craig Lauzon Chelsea Muirhead Jennifer Wigmore Perrie Voss Gwenlyn Cumyn Tess Degenstein Michael Esposito II Robyn Laliberté Jeremy Ferdman Joella Crichton Andrew Nicholas McCann Smith Viviana Zarrillo Alison Deon Sloane Nelah Eveleigh Tim Walker

Director Director

Writer writer, releases by date, 08 mar 2022.

• Theatrical limited

14 Jan 2023

14 feb 2023, releases by country.

• Premiere Glasgow Film Festival

93 mins   More at IMDb TMDb Report this page

Popular reviews

Review by xandertoronto ★★★★★

why is this film perfect? watched it with some friends, none of us had any idea what to expect but liked the trailer and the concept. here to say this deserves to be a new canadian classic

Review by Hannah Campbell ★★★★★

Ellie Moon is a genius. Soo many ideas in this film that all fit together in a lovely way

Observations and thoughts:

- bubble gum pastels vs the burgundy blanket - the crossovers of romantic relationships and parental relationships - a character's mental health being portrayed in waves rather than a big blow out breakdown - friendships are not family relationships but they can be like sisterhoods - giving nothing is better than giving something but not giving everything - creepy dude definitely dated other ppl off the app - loved the Moldovan dad / sugar packet ending - v satisfying

Review by femfilmpod ★★★★★

absolutely adored this hidden gem

Review by lucashorvath ★★★★★

been like 5-8 years since a film I knew nothing about going into it blew me away this much. incredible central performance, chillingly believable and yet I had no idea what was coming next. will watch anything Ellie Moon does for the rest of her career or my life

Review by gracie s ★★★★★

Ellie Moon is a star, would love to see her in everything! Terrific acting (from everyone) and writing. I loved the visuals (that bedroom!) and the hand held camera work added nicely to the sense of precarious intimacy. I think about this movie all the time and added it to my top 4 without leaving a review cause I thought I could come up with something better than this but…it is just a great fucking movie~ 10/10

Review by Lynn Betts ★★★★ 4

UNDERSEEN SEEKER CHALLENGE Year Released: 2022 As of review date: March 16, 2023 # logs: 109 # reviews: 44 Hidden gem? For some, yes. I think your connection to this film will depend on your current relationship status with family, friends and significant others, with any associated social anxiety and hang ups.

Although the first act gets off to a rough start in every sense, with an on-the-nose script, exaggerated maladaptive behaviour and first-take overacting, the film starts to even out and gain some ground if you can forgive the first fifteen to twenty minutes.

After which, it's a great hypothetical enactment of what characters might show up with a desire to adopt an adult; I did my own research…

Review by McGrey ★★★★★ 3

“You’ve only met me an hour, I’m actually really unstable,” 

The disappointment I felt when he tried to sleep with her ☹️

Rosy really just wanted to feel the love of a parent, took her so long to knit that thing and all she wanted in return was for her to brush her hair 🥺

Review by thedayofthedot ★★★½

A lonely girl searching for that one person to connect with

Review by oliviathem ★★★★★

WHO IS ELLIE MOON (this movie was great)

Review by gianiz ★★★★★

this movie is something very special

Review by Moira Mackenzie-Thorpe ★★★★★

superb film, insanely virtuosic lead performance, couldn't take my eyes off her, didn't realise she wrote the script til the credits...wow. loved the music too

Review by pyeir1 ★★★★★ 1

I too added this to my top 4; a breathtaking film with a script that speaks to some feelings I've really never seen explored in film, incredible lead performance

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Adult Adoption (2023)

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Rosy is a 25-year-old bank teller who ‘aged out’ of the foster care system at 18 and has since managed to build a solid yet unspectacular life for herself. Desperate to fill that parental void, she seeks out an online service that connects older adults looking for adult surrogate children. In turn, this takes Rosy on a surreal journey to find that familial love she has long been searching for.

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Rebecca Northan

Donald MacLean Jr.

Michael Healey

Craig Lauzon

Chelsea Muirhead

Jennifer Wigmore

Perrie Voss

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• "'Adult Adoption' is scattered with many such little lessons about connections found in unexpected places without labouring the point, and embraces the often unexpectedly warm messiness of real life"  Amber Wilkinson : Screendaily
• "It's worth giving a try to. It's an odd little movie, full of charm, and it may just make you look at things a little closer (...) Rating: ★★★½ (out of 5)"  Rod Thedorff : In The Seats
• "'Adult Adoption' is a thoughtful coming-of-age story that will have you rooting for its complicated heroine"  Tabassum Siddiqui : The Globe and Mail

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Adult Adoption

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April 18, 2024 Villains Inc.

April 16, 2024 sting, april 15, 2024 la chimera, april 12, 2024 the greatest hits, april 12, 2024 with love and a major organ, wylie writes, movie reviews, adult adoption.

March 19, 2023 Wylie Writes Staff 0 Comments

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By: Trevor Chartrand

Quirky and surreal, Adult Adoption is the bizarrely unique directorial feature film debut from Karen Knox (star of Letters to Satan Claus ).  The movie explores its characters with a delicate balance of intrusive empathy, and Knox’s filmmaking is executed in such an uncomfortable way that viewers may feel like they’re trespassing on the intimate details of a person’s private life.

Adult Adoption  was written by Ellie Moon.  Moon ( The Last Porno Show ) also stars as Rosy, a young orphan woman who grew up in the foster care system, and “aged out” of it relatively unscathed.  She’s independent and functional, finding success in a banking job.  When a friend points out her achievements in life are purely surface-level, she realizes, in spite of everything she’s done for herself, she still has no family: no mother, no father, only loneliness.  To fill this missing gap in her life, she joins a strange match-making website that’s specifically designed to connect older people with young adults to represent a platonic parental figure in their lives.  

The camera’s gaze is what gives Adult Adoption  that unnerving, unwelcoming sensation;  combined with the uncomfortable nature of the premise – a dating service to find a mother and a father – makes for a viewing experience that left me shuddering.  The fly-on-the-wall cinematography leaves a sensation of claustrophobic voyeurism.  

As the writer, Moon does a sensational job of exploring these characters, grounding them to the point that it becomes difficult to watch their struggles.  The film is not without humour either but, again, it’s often at the expense of the characters and their awkward discomfort.  The cast all lend a hand to this sensation with nuanced performances that bring a heavy sense of realism to their roles.  While the film appears light and colourful, there’s a darkness underneath that can’t be ignored.

Adult Adoption is undoubtedly entertaining, but it may leave a disagreeable taste in one’s mouth.  Ultimately, this is a truly fresh story that’s executed with a unique, otherworldly feel;  a virtue that’s all too rare.

Do You Tweet? Follow These Tweeple: Trevor Chartrand:   @OhHaiTrebor

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Rosy, who aged out of foster care, sets out to find the love of a parent figure online.

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‘nowhere special’ review: james norton brings raw feeling to intimate father-son drama.

Inspired by a real-life adoption case, Uberto Pasolini’s Northern Ireland-set tearjerker follows a single parent with a terminal illness as he seeks a new family to raise his four-year-old boy.

By David Rooney

David Rooney

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Emily beecham, clémence poésy join james norton, nikolaj coster-waldau in 'king & conqueror' series, 'bob marley: one love' review: kingsley ben-adir and lashana lynch enliven a stunted biopic, nowhere special.

While Still Life at times strained for pathos, Nowhere Special achieves its poignancy through an understatement echoed in Andrew Simon McAllister’s gentle melodic score, dominated by guitars and orchestral strings, and the contemplative cinematography of Marius Panduru, known for his work with fellow Romanian Radu Jude.

Most of all, the movie’s defining restraint is embodied in the depth and nuance of Norton’s characterization as John, a 34-year-old blue-collar Belfast resident who works as a window-cleaner, but more importantly, a loving single father, anxiously facing the most momentous decision of his life.

That life, we learn early on, more by suggestion than explication, has a looming expiration date. Diagnosed with what appears to be late-stage cancer (his illness is never specified), John is working with an adoption agency to find a new home for Michael (Daniel Lamont), the adoring 4-year-old son whose entire world revolves around his dad. He’s also doing everything possible to shelter the boy from the reality of death, balancing deep sadness and a sense of hopelessness with the need to stay positive for his son.

Panduru’s camera watches John at work and around the city, his eyes homing in on every glimpse of a happy child or a loving family unit. The motif of windows as a snapshot of other lives is never overplayed. The film also excels at capturing the comforting rhythms of John’s daily life with Michael — the walks to and from school, afternoons in the park, mealtimes, bedtime stories. It’s on these simple pleasures as much as the underlying sorrow that the film’s central relationship is built. All this could easily have turned saccharine without Pasolini’s lightness of touch and without such superb casting.

Norton skillfully conveys John’s efforts to maintain a façade of normalcy while his eyes reveal the interior struggle of his brooding thoughts on mortality, his diminishing strength and his son’s inevitable pain. At times, a barely concealed rage over the unfairness of his situation ripples just beneath the surface, an anger John works hard to contain, especially around Michael.

Lamont’s unaffected naturalness is just as crucial. He’s a remarkably instinctive actor with large, expressive eyes, and shots of Michael studying his dad, trying to get a read on what’s not being said, are extremely touching. Lamont and Norton’s easy body language with each other suggests a genuine connection formed during rehearsals.

We also surmise from John’s tattoos and his world-weary gaze during solitary moments that his unhappy childhood segued into a wilder youth, before becoming a full-time single parent reined him in. He’s an uneducated man whose experience of fatherhood has given him sensitivity; he clearly considers Michael the best thing to come out of his life.

Norton, whose name has been popping up in U.K. clickbait headlines about the potential next James Bond, convincingly roughs up his chiseled good looks, projecting a gaunt, hangdog appearance when he’s not putting up a front for Michael.

The actor beautifully calibrates the gradual shift in John as the window to make a decision starts closing. At first he’s stubborn, determined to find the perfect family and unwilling to settle for less. He’s also dismissive of the adoption agency’s counseling to make a “memory box” of objects that might help Michael know something about his late father when he’s older, or to read him the recommended children’s book, When Dinosaurs Die , to familiarize his son with the concept of death.

Without ever straying too far from John’s fundamental nature as a somewhat taciturn character, there are lovely scenes in which he shares his doubts with Shona or listens as a kind elderly widow (Stella McCusker) for whom he does odd jobs speaks about her late husband, revealing that she still talks to him every day.

Ultimately, what keeps Nowhere Special from being nothing special is the film’s delicacy, its unfussy simplicity, its perceptiveness. The empathy it brings to one man’s crushing decision makes this an affecting portrait of parental devotion.

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