The House of Adam

This film was presented as the centerpiece film at Reelpride this past Saturday at the Cinema D'or. First, I must comment on the projection. From the beginning the sound and image were awful!!!. I left the auditorium within minutes of the film's beginning to complain about the sound. The sound was really bad!. That is when I was told that the speakers in the theatre had blown out. The sound was so distorted, I was hard to hear what was happening. Every time the sound peaked in the movie it got distorted. This is something, also with the projection, that I will blame the festival for. There were other films that I saw earlier at the festival that had the same type of sound problem. By the time I saw this one, It was hard to understand anything. Anyways, back to the film. The film was fabulous. The director is very insightful. I really enjoyed the directors tongue in cheek dark humor that you don't usually see in a thriller...Even though I would refer to this film as more of a drama with thriller elements towards the end. The tongue in cheek humor I found it in the irony of what was happening when the wife is telling the detective who previously lived at the cabin she now owns what happened to the previous cabin owners not knowing she was taking care of him...very clever! Also, I thought it was a riot when the wife hits the detective with her car and tells her husband she must call him back. There was a sassy campiness to the film that gave this thriller a certain light edge to it even though I found the material to be heavy. I liked the actors (Antony and Adam actors). The writing was quick and witty. The nina character in the film was very annoying. She was so annoying it's not too difficult to comprehend why her husband would leave her for another man. Since the projection of the image and sound were so poor (it was projected digitally) it was hard to tell how good, or not so good, were the production values. I liked the story a lot. It was very entertaining. The filmmaker should continue with this style of film-making. I like it. He deals with some very heavy subject matter here but handles it in a way (dark comedic tongue in cheek) that you can't help to laugh at the absurdity of situations some people put themselves into in real life. I applaud the filmmaker for that and look forward to seeing more of his work.

I've been a champion of independent films for years. I liked this film it so much I felt the need to comment on it. I read the reviews on this site and notice most have different reason why they liked or dislike the film. First, I must say taking into consideration this was probably done on a modest budget, the production values are okay. The cinematography is very good. Now to the story. I found it to be well written and original. The writing is strong and to the point. The lead characters are well fleshed out. It has several moving moments that probably works well enough to squeeze a tear or two out of the viewer. The acting of the females in this picture was not the best, as a matter a fact, I thought it was pretty raw, but passable. The main actors were very good. I can see them going on to do great things, specially the guy that plays Antony. He had a natural yet striking presence. He has lead written all over and he commands attention. This is one of those film that has so many genres mixed in it, you are better off sitting back and going for the ride.

This movie had the potential to be a great movie, however, it is not. The best part of this movie, and the part that kept me watching, was the actor that played Anthony (John Shaw). His acting wasn't the best but talking about a hunk! This guy is beautiful! Woof! Without giving away the plot ( was there just one???) I will say that one of the worst things about this movie is the sound quality. Whoever did the sound for this movie was either new or deaf. Also the story lines were glued together however without any attempt to make it flow. Even the love story wasn't developed in a way that love could be seen between the two main men in the movie. It was an attempt and even if it made it to the glitter awards in 2006, it sure could have been a lot better!

A good loving moving story that moves at a good pace, packs a punch and delivers. Mr. Ameer continues to improve his directorial skills with another fine production to add to his ongoing growth. House of Adam is a wonderful, compelling story line with a strong moral agenda. The body shots of the two male actors are alluring and provocative yet artistically balanced. The cast is very attractive and appealing. Good casting. Thumbs Up! The story is very intricate and emotional with a very gratifying ending. There is justice to the ending. I felt vindicated after what was done to the Adam character. Overall, The House of Adam will be a love story to remember for a very long time.

I just saw this film on Saturday evening (4-22-06) as part of the Gay and Lesbian Film Festival being held here in Palm Desert. I didn't know what to expect and was disappointed that the sound quality was so poor when the film began. The sound quality never improved. It didn't much matter since the dialogue was poor and the acting was even worse. The quality of this film was so uniformly poor, that one could only assume it was intentional and that this was a conscious decision to make the film so funny. The stilted dialogue and extremely amateur acting, not to mention the poor sound and filming quality were a bit reminiscent of John Water's early films. Actually, this was the film JW might have made when experimenting as a teenager. I have to say that in spite of its flaws (or because of them), I enjoyed the film a lot. I haven't laughed that hard at a film in a very long time. The people who were seated near me all had one question on their mind at the end of the film: Did the film's creator intend to make a comedy with this film? It didn't seem so since the film took itself so seriously. Anyway, I enjoyed it very much, even though it was probably not in the way the director intended.