Adam & Steve

Adam & Steve begins with an appealing promise: Craig Chester will treat its comedy framework as a route into character rather than an excuse for noise. The early chemistry between Craig Chester and Malcolm Gets gives Adam & Steve an immediate pulse. The story of Adam & Steve begins from a specific pressure point: Follows two New York City couples, one heterosexual and one gay, who explore the peaks and the valleys of their respective relationships. By the end of its 1h 39m running time, the value of Adam & Steve rests less on novelty than on the care of its execution.

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At story level, Adam & Steve turns Follows and New York City into the source of its main tension. The role played by Craig Chester becomes the viewer's route through Adam & Steve, especially when the central character begins to alter the situation. Craig Chester gives Adam & Steve momentum by allowing choices to create consequences instead of treating each scene as isolated information. Even when an important relationship pushes the plot toward familiar ground, Adam & Steve remains attentive to what that pressure means for its characters.

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Craig Chester gives Adam & Steve its most dependable performance, finding a clear emotional intention beneath the plot. Opposite Craig Chester, Malcolm Gets brings Adam & Steve a contrasting pace that prevents the central relationship from feeling flat. Parker Posey widens the ensemble of Adam & Steve through reactions that suggest a life beyond the immediate scene. Craig Chester serves the cast of Adam & Steve best when a look or pause is allowed to finish before the story moves on.

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The central idea running through Adam & Steve concerns embarrassment, status and the gap between confidence and reality. Craig Chester gives that idea a human scale, allowing Adam & Steve to remain accessible even when its world becomes larger. By returning to the central character, Adam & Steve turns theme into a source of pressure rather than a message waiting to be delivered. The handling by Craig Chester lets Adam & Steve leave a little interpretive room, which gives its better scenes an afterlife.

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Craig Chester shapes Adam & Steve with an approach that feels engaging in bursts but unable to maintain the same control. The best directed passages in Adam & Steve establish an objective, let the characters respond and then allow the pressure to change naturally. Worthwhile ideas compete with an uneven structure in Adam & Steve, particularly when Craig Chester resists the urge to underline an already clear emotion. My main reservation about Adam & Steve is that the pace alternates between hurry and drift, a limitation that interrupts rather than defines the experience.

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The craft of Adam & Steve is defined by well judged reactions, supported by well judged reactions rather than overwhelmed by decoration. Funny Boy Films gives Adam & Steve a production framework in which performer rhythm can remain connected to story. Made from a United States production context, Adam & Steve uses setting and design to clarify mood before dialogue has to explain it. The technical finish of Adam & Steve works because image, sound and editing appear to be serving the same immediate purpose.

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Overall, Adam & Steve amounts to a qualified recommendation and should suit comedy fans who respond to personality and timing. The combination of Craig Chester, Craig Chester and well judged reactions gives Adam & Steve a specific identity. Although the pace alternates between hurry and drift in Adam & Steve, the film recovers through craft and committed performance. For the audience it understands, Adam & Steve offers enough character to remain worthwhile after the immediate plot has faded.