Adelaide (2009)
The protagonist - Adelaide - seeks attention by faking illnesses. When she meets Brad, an aspiring paramedic, at the pharmacy counter, she believes she may have found the perfect man. So what happens next for these two?
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Adelaide is a woman who hurts herself to get attention – not cutting herself but calling an ambulance for assistance with very specific instructions before then overdosing on drunks or sending herself into anaphylactic shock, things like that. Her best friend is Doctor Taylor. When she decides she needs to have a friend her own age, she meets a man behind the chemist's counter and it seems like a natural fit.This is a very dark film that also manages to pull itself together as a romance – it is a very odd mix but it works. Like so many genre romances, it takes some quirky outsiders, puts them together, makes us care for them and sees us happy as they appear to be working out despite the odds and their quirks. The thing here is that the quirk is rather dark since Adelaide is driven to hurt herself to draw people close to her in sympathy and concern – and this compulsion continues even when someone is naturally drawn to her anyway. I'm not totally sure how the film manages to pull it off but it does this with a slightly comic edge that makes it palatable but never makes light of it – it is just what she struggles with being.I don't think I ever totally shook off the feeling that this was wrong somehow or that the film was a bit uncomfortable but the romance aspect worked pretty well and it had a certain charm which balanced out the darkness. Hollyman is a good lead and plays it very well; Harris is not quite as good and I never really felt his character, but he worked well with Hollyman and this is the main thing. The tone of the film is light but, like I said, Greenfield-Sanders did a good job with material and direction to balance that mood very well.