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I know the reviews were all over the map for this one; I think it was hard to fit everything in, both in terms of material and in terms of the personalities on screen, and the themes are heavy stuff that you'll either enjoy exploring or resent having to confront. I know for a fact that I'll never even suggest that Mr Cello watch it, this is SO not his jam. But I absolutely loved it and it's gentle, funny, profane exploration of love (both filial and romantic) and fidelity.
I swear if anyone else had played Phillip, we'd have had NO patience with his nonsense, whatsoever. From the moment we meet him, it's clear he has no inclination to behave appropriately in a serious social situation. He's rude, immature, and attention-seeking, and he loves nothing better than to tease his siblings right up to (and sometimes right past) the breaking point.
But Adam's portrayal has this winsome sincerity woven through it. He seems to genuinely love his girlfriend, despite cheating on her. You can tell he desperately wants his siblings to recognize that he's grown up since they last knew him. He's so very acutely aware that they're not perfect, and takes a perverse delight in reminding them of this every chance he gets, but he adores his sister and admires his brothers; they're his family, he loves them, and he just really wants them to recognize that he's not the little tag-along anymore.
And somehow, Adam manages to show us that Phillip's clownish immaturity is meant to distract from, and maybe is a self-defense mechanism to help him cope with, how deep his emotions run. We get glimpses, here and there-- in the classroom ("God, I *miss* him"), and when he and Judd share their father's trademark forehead press at the end (that, briefest of brief, full body shudder of grief that passes through him just undid me)-- and then just like that, the walls are up, and the clown is back. He plays at being shallow when he's anything but.
I swear if anyone else had played Phillip, we'd have had NO patience with his nonsense, whatsoever. From the moment we meet him, it's clear he has no inclination to behave appropriately in a serious social situation. He's rude, immature, and attention-seeking, and he loves nothing better than to tease his siblings right up to (and sometimes right past) the breaking point.
But Adam's portrayal has this winsome sincerity woven through it. He seems to genuinely love his girlfriend, despite cheating on her. You can tell he desperately wants his siblings to recognize that he's grown up since they last knew him. He's so very acutely aware that they're not perfect, and takes a perverse delight in reminding them of this every chance he gets, but he adores his sister and admires his brothers; they're his family, he loves them, and he just really wants them to recognize that he's not the little tag-along anymore.
And somehow, Adam manages to show us that Phillip's clownish immaturity is meant to distract from, and maybe is a self-defense mechanism to help him cope with, how deep his emotions run. We get glimpses, here and there-- in the classroom ("God, I *miss* him"), and when he and Judd share their father's trademark forehead press at the end (that, briefest of brief, full body shudder of grief that passes through him just undid me)-- and then just like that, the walls are up, and the clown is back. He plays at being shallow when he's anything but.
