<i>.I know my trip reports are the written equivalent of the Battan death march and I apologize!</i>

No No No ... this is so interesting and so fun to read and I am loving it ... not to mention drooling just a tiny bit over the chocolate fondue :P

kswl - I wondered when you would post again. This is a terrific report.

Here's a link to the Variety review of The Maid.
http://www.variety.com/VE1117939461.html

The really sad thing is, it will get an extremely limited release in the US, if anything - maybe play 5 - 8 cities, if they are lucky. You might watch for the DVD release or on cable . . and it will take a year or so. Studios think there are very small audiences for foreign films . . even though we know it's not true.

You made the filmmakers' day when you talked to them (until they won the Jury prize!)

Here's the review for Mystery Team
http://www.variety.com/review/VE1117...id=31&amp;cs=1

kswl,

I am so enjoying hearing your reviews! I thought the Mystery Team sounded good, so now I'll watch for it at Blockbuster.

Do continue!

Our next film was &quot;Adam,&quot; a premiere movie directed and written by Max Mayer and starring Hugh Dancy and Rose Byrne. Peter Gallagher and Amy Irving are supporting actors.

Adam is an adult with Aspberger's, and the film opens with scenes of his father's funeral. He has lived with his Dad his whole life. Dad had helped him navigate life by paying bills, getting him a job, cooking, etc. Without his father the loneliness of his life becomes apparent even to Adam. We see scenes of him at work where his boss gives him warning signs that he's about to lose his job and he just doesn't pick up on them. A new tenant moves into his building, a pretty and outgoing young woman who is interested in Adam but baffled by his behavior.

They get to know each other through a series of somewhat disjoined events---looking at stars in the night sky, watching raccoons in New York's Central Park late at night, running into each other in the laundry room. Beth learns that Adam is absolutely literal, and much of her light-hearted personality must be repressed when she's around him. He falls in love with her, but we have no way of knowing whether she is merely a social safety net replacement for his father. She is cautious but intrigued; having evidently been lied to by her last boyfriend she finds Adam's utter honesty both refreshing and safe.

Parallel to the story is Beth's father's trouble; a lifelong schmoozer and slick operator, he is a successful CPA who is being investigated for fraud. Although he assures his daughter and wife repeatedly that &quot;nothing will come of it,&quot; his case goes to trial and he is convicted and sentenced to two years in prison. This is a devastating blow to Beth, an only child who idolizes her father. For his part, Dad believes that Adam is not good enough for his princess. Beth is torn between her father, who has been publicly branded a liar, and her boyfriend, who is incapable of lying and yet can't provide the easygoing interpersonal life she expects and wants.

The performances in this movie are outstanding. Hugh Dancy is absolutely convincing as an adult with Aspberger's; in the QandA afterwards several people who have children or relatives with the condition remarked on how well Dancy portrayed Adam. Rose Byrne and the supporting actors were equally outstanding, with not a word or facial expression out of alignment with the storyline.

The story was well thought out, the dialogue was mostly true to type, and the cinematography overall was good with some outstanding scenes. The entire film was shot in New York. We saw the movie in the Eccles Performing Arts Center, which is the biggest venue at Sundance with 1200 seats.

The QandA session was informative and Max Mayer was a very happy man to be introducing his film; we saw the first premiere showing and he was visibly excited. A complete surprise came when Hugh Dancy and Rose Byrne answered questions; they are both English! I don't know how difficult it is to supress an English accent but they both sounded just like Americans of the increasing type who have no regional accent at all.

&quot;Adam&quot; did not have a storybook ending, but it was happy nonetheless---a more satisfying happiness for him. This is a beautifully developed, sensitive film that would appeal to just about everyone. Interestingly, it was our 17-year-old and DH's favorite movie at Sundance.

Adam: 9.5 /10

Wow, fantastic trip report, kswl; thanks for all the details!

As you know, I went to Sundance as well for the latter half of the film festival. I had a much lazier experience. I only went to one film and it was one of those gifted blessed experiences. I put no effort into it and showed up at the ticket office in Park city at the crack of noon after a nice lunch. Looking at the schedules outside, some guy wanders up and offers tickets for sale. He has package B and had many extras. They were for two premieres that evening. I coulda/shoulda done both but I only chose one, The Informers.

The story is by Brett Easton Ellis who I think did American Psycho and it has Billy Bob Thornton, Kim Basinger, Mickey Rourke and many others. Everything was miraculously easy about this experience. It was at Eccles, their big venue and I was able to park right in their lot rather than miles away and walking or taking a shuttle. We had to wait in line for a while and it was cold but SO kept me warm wrapping his coat around me. Interesting to overhear snippets of conversation of other sundance goers. Apparently, Shrink with Kevin spacey was great.

Once we got seated inside, there was some commotion with people standing up in the left front region. Turns out it was Chris Rock in the audience....he had a separate movie in the festival, a documentary called Good Hair.

The movie began and I had low expectations based on the director's own comments but I thoroughly enjoyed it. It was gorgeous lush cinematography with beautiful people living out their lives of excess in the 80s. It was a very dark movie and some people left early or as soon as it was over. I would give it an 8/10.

We had one day we spent in SLC and squandered our opportunities being there during Sundance by just going to see current release mainstream movies. We saw Gran Torino and Defiance which we thoroughly enjoyed as well followed by an amazing sour cream French apple pie ala mode at Dodo's at the Gateway mall.

ncounty, you are too lucky! If we'd left it up to chance like that we would have spent our time in waitlist lines, lol. You didn't say whether you liked your movie... I didn't have that one on my list because I think Ellis is completely psycho :)

We saw a different movie with Billy Bob Thornton which I will review...O.M.G. why haven't they taken his SAG card and tossed him aside yet???

Oh, I thoroughly enjoyed the movie, kswl. It was gorgeous and intriguing in a dark way. The director said it was more european in that it wasn't so much story driven as mood and process driven. You're much more informed on the movie biz than I am; I was only vaguely familiar with Easton's name but did not have a formed opinion of him. Based on this movie, he sure has some dark stuff in his head!