Adan

Adan is another sapphic film from Filipino premium cable channel, Vivamax. From what I can tell, as far as cable TV movies go, Vivamax films have less nudity than a Cinemax movie, but less artistic validity than an HBO movie. Of the few I’ve seen, I think Adan might be the one I think is strongest. But it would be undoubtedly be a stronger movie if it wasn’t for the Vivamax influence on how Adan chooses to tell its story.

The isolated Marian grows up on a farm with only her father, her mother having left them when Marian was young. Marian’s father is unpleasant and bitter about his wife leaving. As Marian grows up, she develops a strong sense of shame about her sexuality and general status as a woman. The bright spot is her friend, Ellen. Marian represses her feelings towards Ellen for years. But one day, her father becomes too controlling and abusive and Marian goes to Ellen. Ellen declares that she will kill him, and then does exactly that. Then, Ellen moves onto the farm with Marian and their relationship deepens. But they’ve killed a guy and so eventually, someone starts to look into what happened to Marian’s father.

My thing with the Vivamax films I’ve seen is that I find them tonally confused. Mostly, Adan is a crime drama with some really shoddy character work. But because of Vivamax expectations, there’s also some deliberately sexy scenes. And these scenes feel jarring in comparison to the rest of the story and tone. Adan doesn’t tell a story that really lends to sex scenes. Though it’s not like it would be impossible, either. But in this case, these scenes not only stop plot development, but do not feel in finding with the character work. Marian learns to hide her nudity and sexuality to an unhealthy degree while living with her father. But most of the sex she has is in public. Just put a pause on all your internalized shame so you can scissor on a beach or get fingered in a rickshaw.

I also dislike how little goodwill Adan has for its lead characters. This is obviously a weird thing to say because they’re literally created by director and co-writer Roman Perez jr. I’m just an outside perspective. But the character beats in the second two acts of this story make me really sad. Marian gets more unhealthy and develops more shame after the murder of her father. And Ellen? After one murder which in my opinion, was semi-justified and clearly desperate, Ellen goes all-in. She does another murder with a sexual component and the film really delves into how villainous and unwell both women are by the end. I find this frustrating because I saw that first murder as a desperate choice in impossible and dangerous circumstances. The film seems to view it as proof positive that both women have a pattern of unwell, violent behaviour.

I saw several reviews of this film saying that the ending sucked. And I was curious what that would be because I thought the beginning and middle of Adan sucked too. I get why people don’t like the ending. It’s a downer, kind of comes out of nowhere and further adds to the depiction of Marian and Ellen being cruel and dangerous. However, the ending was my favourite part of the movie. It’s so over the top, so cruel and violent that I have to respect it. It’s a unique ending that I sure wasn’t expecting based on what I’d heard about the movie going in. Adan’s ending is basically when the movie becomes so bad and over the top it loops back around into engaging melodrama. For me, anyway. 

Adan had a decent idea for how to start its movie and seemingly, a specific way it wanted the film to end. And in between? Bad character work, lousy sex scenes and a plot that doesn’t so much gradually get more unhinged but rather does so in fits and starts. There are a few ideas here. But the realization of those ideas skews sexist and stupid. The film doesn’t offer enough understanding or respect to its female characters in traumatic moments. And the whole film has that specific Vivamax lighting and filter which makes it all look like someone’s engagement photoshoot. I actually don’t fully mind the filter. Adan is a pretty film to look at. But said filter is to me, more proof of Vivamax’s expectations for what their original movies should be like, despite telling stories that don’t necessarily fit that mould. I still defend the ending, though.

Overall rating: 3.7/10

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