An earnest romcom about a young man (Hugh Dancy) with Asperger's makes for mellow watching with its snoozy indie soundtrack. Dancy gives a fine, fastidiously researched performance as the socially cut-off Adam. The trouble is it's all so genteelly palatable.
When Adam starts a relationship with the cute girl (Rose Byrne) upstairs, his obsession with outer space (as opposed to say, hacking into government databases) makes for romantic moonlit strolls in New York's Central Park.
Writer/director Max Mayer flirts with the idea of frankly examining a relationship with someone who actually can't think of anyone but themselves. But despite obvious good intentions, this feels dishonest, and I suspect not very true to life. Worst of all, it risks trivialising such disorders into lovable quirks.
And another thing: Byrne's character is a primary school teacher who doesn't have the first clue about autism. In New York, the syndrome capital of the world? Please.
• This article was amended on 10 August 2009. The original referred to the risk of "trivialising mental illness", whereas Asperger's is a neurologically-rooted condition. This has been corrected.
