The Adam Project (2022)

“We can fix this.”

The Adam Project (2022)

Just some random gifs that didn’t make it onto the first set :)

The Adam Project (2022)

The Adam Project (2022)

at this point in his career, I think directors just give Ryan Reynolds the plot to a movie and he just makes up the dialogue as he goes bc there is no way any of the shit he says in his movies is planned and not just him saying whatever he thinks would make the movie go on

The Adam Project is NOT just “another Ryan Reynolds movie”

Now let’s get one thing clear (There will be a few things to explain. But ‘Let’s get 5 things clear’ doesn’t have as much of a ring to it). It’s currently spring break, I have a 6 page essay due in 3 days that I’m trying to work through. I haven’t read my sources yet and I’m trying to bullshit my way through it without having to read 50 pages of Martin Seligman and Aristotle to learn about this stuff before I write it down. But getting a good grade on this paper worth 20% of this English core class is not as important as setting the record straight: The Adam Project was a fucking masterpiece.

I won’t go too in depth about what the movie is. I have a lot on my mind and I don’t want to slow it down by stopping to explain the plot to you, so here’s a brief synopsis: Time travel exists! Adam Reed (Ryan Reynolds) travels back in time to try and rescue his wife, who got stuck in 2018. He lands in 2022 (he was under a lot of stress, okay?) and teams up with his younger self (Walker Scobell) to destroy time travel, because there’s a big monopoly on time that fucks with people’s lives. They go back in time to 2018, to work with The Adams’ father, Louis (Mark Ruffalo), who just so coincidentally was the one to accidentally invent time travel. And also, Louis died in 2021, and both Adams are still reeling with grief.

I watched this movie without pausing once, which is a great difficulty for my ADHD-raddled brain. But I was hooked from the start, the quick pace perfect to keep my attention, the characters enjoyable and connectable, and the cinematography fucking amazing. I could watch that movie on mute and still be mesmerized by the shot composition and color scheme throughout the film (I just like the color blue. It’s blue. It’s heaven for me). I looked up the reviews hoping to fill with pride at the praise it should undoubtedly receive, but I was quickly disappointed.

The primary critique I seem to stumble upon is that it is “just another Ryan Reynolds movie.” People are beginning to tire of Reynolds’ charisma and satirical sense of humor, the very thing that the same people praised about him in the first place. They don’t giggle anymore at the jokes pointed at other popular franchises, or laugh at the sly references that are a staple of Reynolds’ films. Which to this critique, I say: You fucking wanted this! Let’s be honest: The vast majority of people who watched The Adam Project wanted to watch Ryan Reynolds for almost two hours. Then, the same people get pissed that Ryan Reynolds is acting like Ryan Reynolds! Shocking.

I understand the complaint, Ryan Reynolds definitely has a character type that I and much of the world enjoy watching him play. The difficulty comes when this is used to undermine the movie as a whole – The Adam Project is absolutely NOT just another Ryan Reynolds movie. It’s about childhood, and grief, and figuring your shit out. It’s a physical manifestation of inner child healing! I can’t make people who don’t get it understand. But Adam has been carrying around the grief from his father’s death his entire life, and without processing it he has carried around his childhood-self this entire time. Now he gets to physically revisit himself, and figure his shit out.

After losing his father, young Adam doesn’t know what to do with himself. He uses his smart mouth to shield himself from others and the grief that is stewing within himself. He lashes out at his mother, doesn’t allow himself to develop connections with his classmates. He keeps spiraling, lets his pain fester for almost thirty years, until he is where we meet him: Cynical, deflective, angry. Then we see him as he was at the beginning of his journey: Clever, avoiding, and suffering.

We see the similarities between the two: the jokes, the pain. We also see their differences: Young Adam is more optimistic (although this is only in comparison to Big Adam), his anger is fresh, and he acts outwardly instead of inward. Big Adam has sat with his hatred for decades, and it has infected him. He hates himself for lashing out at his mother, like Young Adam is doing right now. It’s something that many people with a painful past do. We look back at ourselves, and our differences, and think “What happened?” or “Why did I do that?” Living in the past keeps us there. Staying stuck in our trauma keeps us from moving on.

And maybe this is getting a little too personal. But I think it has to! If you understand it, you do. If you don’t, the only thing I can do is refer back to myself to give you some sort of comparison. This isn’t about me, but here’s a little background info: My father never took care of me emotionally. Boohoo! There’s more to that story but I prefer to be cool and mysterious (Plus it’s a little bit of a downer). Point is, I feel my childhood self with me all the time. I feel him get angry at little things, like people not holding the door open for me or saying bless you when I sneeze. I feel him getting upset whenever friends don’t respond quickly enough, or whenever I don’t have anyone to help me take care of myself. It reminds him of growing up, and that’s painful for him.

I dabble a bit in inner child healing. This is when you recognize that there’s a wounded child version of yourself inside your mind, and he never got to grow up like you did. The point is to recognize the way he’s feeling, and reassure him that things are okay. Like there’s a traumatized dog in your mind. They can’t comprehend that they’re not in a safe space just yet. It’s about being compassionate with yourself and guiding yourself to healing.

And how much easier it would be if you could physically manifest your inner child. It would be so much easier to empathize, to recognize that he is a CHILD! That’s what The Adam Project is. Adam has spent so many years trying to shut out his childhood wounds, yet they have still been festering inside of him. It continues to affect him. He hates his younger self for how he acts, hates to think that he was once him. But then he’s forced to look at his 12 year old self, to see him as a separate being, and to reevaluate his emotions. And Young Adam helps Big Adam in ways he didn’t think he could.

“I think it’s easier to be angry than it is to be sad. And I guess, when I get older, I forget that there’s a difference.” –Young Adam to Big Adam

Anyway, where were we? This movie is about inner child healing. About addressing your younger self, acknowledging their pain, acknowledging YOUR pain. Forgiving yourself and finding compassion for your younger self, learning to grow together instead of leaving each other behind. And Big Adam getting to reunite with his father is just the icing on the cake. For decades Adam has taught himself to hate his father, because it’s easier than missing him. Now he gets the chance to experience the love his father has from him before he forgot about it.

And that’s the second thing that fucking gets you. The daddy issues. Dear god, the daddy issues. If you have a good relationship with your father I salute you. I hope you never watch The Adam Project and end with a feeling of bitter yearning in your chest for what Adam got – Closure. But I hope you can come to understand through second-hand knowledge that the closure Adam brings is something very important to everyone that won’t get the same thing from their father. How important it is to have that one last hug.

Sure, maybe it borders on fantastical. But when has that ever been a bad thing? Everything ends up alright in the end. In reality, that’s what all of us want. Despite pulling out my heart and stomping on it on at least four separate occasions, it’s a feel-good movie.

What feels the most insulting to me when reading the negative reviews for this movie is how critics disregard how personal it is. It’s obvious that this movie is a declaration of love to someone’s inner child, to someone’s pain. Someone poured their heart and soul into this movie, and people still don’t understand. Whether or not this is a great deal about Reynolds’ personal experiences (which I remember seeing once, but can’t for the life of me find where he said it. Let’s just go with a maybe), we can clearly see how personal this film is for him. To criticize his performance claiming it’s “too much like Ryan Reynolds” is just downright stupid. It is Ryan Reynolds! This is HIS movie!

Even if this film doesn’t take a lot from Reynolds’ life, you can’t argue that he didn’t fit this role to a T. The entire character of Adam revolves around deflection through anger and jokes, something that Ryan Reynolds does amazingly well. If anything, the RR character type only elevates this film, and it fits in just like a missing puzzle piece.

Basically, SHUT THE FUCK UP! It’s a fucking amazing movie. I’d watch it three times a day for the rest of my life if it didn’t make me think of my own issues with my father. Even if you don’t relate to Adam Reed on a personal level, you can’t deny that it’s still a fun movie. And when did we decide that Ryan Reynolds being Ryan Reynolds was a bad thing? I personally like going to see movies just because he is in them. He makes everything he’s in better.

I just spent an hour writing this instead of my essay. Why did I let myself do that? Okay, I needed to get it off my chest, I wouldn’t have been able to work otherwise. If you haven’t watched The Adam Project, GO WATCH IT! You won’t regret it (unless you’re lame and hate fun, healing, or Ryan Reynolds being Ryan Reynolds). GOODBYE!

Dr. Nine