Review of Adrift in Manhattan (2007) by John T — 29 Jan 2008

Five stars for the performances. Graham was captivating; it was impossible to look away from that face and those stunning blue eyes, even sharpened by her obvious tragedy. Rasuk was very good in his understated stalking (they don't want to make him too creepy), balanced with his shyness and growing unease with his mother's questionable behavior towards him and her alcoholism.

The reason I reduced it to four stars was because the film suffers from "filmmakers' edginess syndrome", where they make it inappropriately sexual, violent, or creepy, just to be considered "edgy", as opposed to relying on the story.

The S/M scene, though it does tell us about Graham's character, could have been done to much better effect in a non-sexual way. That and some of the mother scenes turned my whole opinion of an otherwise very interesting film.