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An American Affair
In the early 1960s, teenager Adam Stafford (Cameron Bright) becomes obsessed with his new neighbor, Catherine Caswell (Gretchen Mol), a divorcée and free spirit. Stafford spies on Caswell as she meets with strange men, and, despite the warnings of his conservative parents, he begins working for her as a gardener. Amid rumors of her affair with President Kennedy, the two become close, but political intrigue surrounding her acquaintances soon infringes on their friendship.
Release : | 2009 |
Rating : | 6.1 |
Studio : | Astrakan Films, |
Crew : | Director of Photography, Prosthetics, |
Cast : | Gretchen Mol James Rebhorn Cameron Bright Noah Wyle Mark Pellegrino |
Genre : | Drama |
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Reviews
Lack of good storyline.
Am i the only one who thinks........Average?
This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.
Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable
OMG! The CIA whacked Jack! Come back to reality. The movie has great actors (Noah Wyle, James Rebhorn, Gretchen Mol, among others); however, the Libtards in Hollywood simply cannot tell a story without their crazed anti-American, Anti-CIA, anti-whatever being the core of the story.JFK was murdered by Oswald (with perhaps the aid of Sam Giancana). Bobby Kennedy was a ruthless and LAWLESS man. JFK had many flaws but was a great leader surrounded by lousy advisers! The movie is still worth watching as every 14 year old boy's fantasy comes to life and love is not what it is all cracked up to be! Had Jack lived he most likely would NOT have been re-elected as Goldwater was way ahead in the polls and the American public was still quite angry at the poor handling of Cuba and Kruschev!
Written by Alex Metcalf and directed by William Olsson, "An American Affair" at least earns points for originality. For what starts out as a fairly conventional coming-of-age tale set in 1963 Washington D.C. suddenly turns into a piece of historical fiction when the obligatory older woman 13-year-old Adam Stafford (Cameron Bright) falls madly in love with turns out to be none other than the mistress of President John F. Kennedy himself. Thus, not only is Adam introduced to the wonderful world of raging hormones but to the sociopolitical issues of the day as well.Adam is the son of two journalists who have no clue their child has been peeping into the home across the way, enjoying a full-court view of Catherine Caswell (nicely played by Gretchen Mol), a glamorous divorcée and ex-CIA agent guaranteed to get any healthy young American lad's juices flowing. When Adam introduces himself to her, Catherine hires him on as a gardener, a setup that gives the youngster plenty of opportunity to not only make his move on this prospective conquest but, thanks to her uniquely complicated social life, to have a special behind-the-scenes glimpse into a bit of juicy, albeit undocumented, political history."An American Affair" throws so many disparate elements into the mix - May/December romance (or maybe more like February/August), lurid political melodrama, adolescent wish-fulfillment, cloak-and-dagger espionage, conspiracy-theory speculation - that it can't help but generate a certain fascination, even when the story itself is not all that convincing or the passion for the subject not everything it could be (this applies mainly to the first half).All the "Summer of '42" stuff is, ultimately, far less compelling than the political details of the period, steeped as they are in Kennedy-era glamour and paranoia, with larger-than-life figures acting out a torrid little soap opera in the foreground, while shadowy figures (mainly Cubans and CIA agents) skulk around in the background. The scenes surrounding the assassination are treated with subtlety and restraint, making them all the more heartbreaking and poignant for those in the audience who lived through the experience. In fact, the whole last half hour of the film achieves a haunting sadness that finally penetrates to the very marrow of one's bones.The movie certainly won't solve the puzzle as to "Who killed JFK?," but it has some fun trying to piece it all together.
Apart from how boring this was, it was also historically inaccurate (apart from Kennedy's assassination), but even still, setting this during that time frame is somewhat distracting.The main plot is generic, recycled and unrealistic to say the least. What are the chances of this kid actually coming across all the events that happen in this story? Not bloody likely.Still, though, there were a couple good scenes (the ending was surprisingly good), but just not enough to save a mediocre film. Mediocre, but watchable at least. I'd be more willing to give this a three and a half, but unfortunately I have to pick either three or four here on IMDb...so I'm leaning more towards a three.
In 1963 I was a senior in high school. Later in 1963 I was a freshman in college. It was there, on my way to or from the cafeteria that I learned our President was shot.This movie, set in that time, brings back good memories for me, not that things were necessarily great in 1963, but because none of us will ever see 1963 again, time passes so quickly.In this fictitious account Gretchen Mol is Catherine Caswell, 30-something and divorced from her CIA husband. Catherine knows John Kennedy, she really "knows" him, and at times he comes to visit her during the night.Cameron Bright, about 15 during filming, is teen Adam Stafford, going through the raging hormone stage. Adam's bedroom window happens to be right across from Catherine's windows, and at night he often catches a glimpse of her. One night after quite a nice, partially nude glimpse, he takes to being very nosy. As in intercepting her mail, steaming it open, to find out more about this mysterious woman who seems to delight in that she can turn on a teenager.All this leads to Adam getting a job taking care of Catherine's yard, with a fringe benefit of becoming her friend. Overall the movie is more about Adam's coming of age (although he never gets close to sleeping with Catherine) than of Catherine's alleged affair with the President. In addition there is a subplot to get and destroy her diary which certainly would have sensitive matter in it.Good movie, better than the IMDb rating would indicate, in my judgement. Mol is an under-appreciated actress, beautiful and always delivers a memorable performance.