The Upcoming
  • Cinema & Tv
    • Movie reviews
    • Film festivals
      • Berlin
      • Tribeca
      • Sundance London
      • Cannes
      • Locarno
      • Venice
      • London
      • Toronto
    • Show reviews
  • Music
    • Live music
  • Food & Drinks
    • News & Features
    • Restaurant & bar reviews
    • Interviews & Recipes
  • Theatre
  • Art
  • Travel & Lifestyle
  • Literature
  • Fashion & Beauty
    • Accessories
    • Beauty
    • News & Features
    • Shopping & Trends
    • Tips & How-tos
    • Fashion weeks
      • London Fashion Week
      • London Fashion Week Men’s
      • New York Fashion Week
      • Milan Fashion Week
      • Paris Fashion Week
      • Haute Couture
  • Join us
    • Editorial unit
    • Our writers
    • Join the team
    • Join the mailing list
    • Support us
    • Contact us
  • Competitions
  • Facebook

  • Twitter

  • Instagram

  • YouTube

  • RSS

Glasgow Film Festival 2022

Adult Adoption

Glasgow Film Festival 2022: Adult Adoption | Review
8 March 2022
Andrew Murray
Avatar
Andrew Murray
8 March 2022

Movie and show review

Andrew Murray

Adult Adoption

★★★★★

The subject of adult adoption is one that rarely (if ever) crops up in cinema. However, playwright-turned-screenwriter Ellie Moon navigates this topic with compassion and care in her writing debut, Adult Adoption (which is directed by Karen Knox). Moon stars as Rosy, a 25-year-old who has “aged out” of the foster care system. She’s managed to build a stable life for herself after turning 18: she has her own apartment and a job at a bank, but she is lonely and desperately seeks familial love to fill a gaping void in her life. When a work friend (Leah Doz) informs her about an adult adoption website, Rosy leaps at the chance and starts meeting older adults hoping for a potential match. However, the search for love and family isn’t as easy as she imagined.

Moon expertly navigates many complex issues in her screenplay, ranging from dependency and depression to the exploitative and dissociative aspects of online dating, all of which are handled with subtlety and filled with little, human touches that give viewers a tangible connection to Rosy’s story. Likewise, Moon’s performance is in keeping with the low-key presentation of the feature. The actor resists the temptation to overstate her character’s trauma and desperation, even in the more intense scenes. Combined with the deep-cutting dialogue between the characters, Moon has crafted a brutally honest realisation of difficult situation.

However, even a screenplay as thoughtful and nuanced as this isn’t without its issues. Aside from an ear-grating soundtrack of auto-tuned bubblegum pop, there are sections of the plot that feel out of place and underdeveloped. One such instance is a subplot involving an old friend and a possible cult that slowly transpires. The purpose of its inclusion is to help Rosy in overcoming her own problems, but by having only a small slice of time allotted to it, its resolution is anti-climactic.

Despite its flaws and rough presentation, Adult Adoption nevertheless remains a thoughtful examination of loneliness, family and the search for a different kind of love in the modern age.

★★★★★

Andrew Murray

Adult Adoption does not have a UK release date yet.

Read more reviews from our Glasgow Film Festival 2022 coverage here.

For further information about the event visit the Glasgow Film Festival website here.

Related Itemsfilm festivalglasgow film festivalreview

More in Glasgow

Corsage

★★★★★
Matthew McMillan
Read More

One Fine Morning (Un Beau Matin)

★★★★★
Andrew Murray
Read More

The Eight Mountains (Le Otto Montagne)

★★★★★
Andrew Murray
Read More

Eo (Hi-Han)

★★★★★
Selina Sondermann
Read More

Tchaïkovsky’s Wife

★★★★★
Selina Sondermann
Read More

God’s Creatures

★★★★★
Andrew Murray
Read More

Father and Soldier (Tirailleurs)

★★★★★
Andrew Murray
Read More

Armageddon Time

★★★★★
Andrew Murray
Read More

Top Gun: Maverick

★★★★★
Filippo L'Astorina, the Editor
Read More
Scroll for more
Tap

Movie and show review

Andrew Murray

Adult Adoption

★★★★★

  • Popular

  • Latest

  • TOP PICKS

  • Albert Adrià reopens Enigma on 7 June as a “fun-dining” restaurant and cocktail bar
    Food & Drinks
  • Crimes of the Future: Three new clips from David Cronenberg’s dystopian body horror film
    Cannes
  • The Road Dance
    ★★★★★
    Movie review
  • The Innocents
    ★★★★★
    Movie review
  • Paolo Nutini at the 100 Club
    ★★★★★
    Live music
  • The Father and the Assassin at the National Theatre
    ★★★★★
    Theatre
  • The Amazons launch How Will I Know If Heaven Will Find Me? at Live Nation
    Live music
  • Dirty Dancing the Movie in concert at Apollo Theatre
    ★★★★★
    Theatre
  • Corsage
    ★★★★★
    Cannes
  • One Fine Morning (Un Beau Matin)
    ★★★★★
    Cannes
  • Dirty Dancing the Movie in concert at Apollo Theatre
    ★★★★★
    Theatre
  • Feminine Power: The Divine to the Demonic at the British Museum
    ★★★★★
    Art
  • Eo (Hi-Han)
    ★★★★★
    Cannes
  • Warpaint at the Roundhouse
    ★★★★★
    Live music
  • Armageddon Time
    ★★★★★
    Cannes
The Upcoming
Pages
  • Contact us
  • Join mailing list
  • Join us
  • Our London food map
  • Our writers
  • Support us
  • What, when, why
With the support from:
International driving license

Copyright © 2011-2020 FL Media

Glasgow Film Festival 2022: Anaïs in Love | Review
Glasgow Film Festival 2022: Good Madam | Review