An American Affair Review- Written By Kelsey Zukowski

Starring: Cameron Bright, Gretchen Mol, Noah Wyle, Perrey Reeves
Directed By: William Olsson
Written By: Alex Metcalf
Grade: B-

An American Affair shows a few different lives in 1963 and how they were affected by the John F. Kennedy’s administration and what led to his assassination. These people being the young and curious Adam, the socialite and blackmailed, Catherine, and Adam’s journalist parents who know how things work and stick to playing their part and staying out of the rest. Everything is told from Adam’s point of view and as an impressionable and open mind, we are able to go in to the film and relate to how he takes the politics that are going around before him. I enjoyed that the focus was on these people living in this time and how they were affected more while still acknowledging what was happening politically to cause this.

13-year old Adam Stafford (Bright) goes to a strict Catholic school and his parent’s are prominent journalists. When Catherine Caswell, a beautiful, young blonde, who is rumored to have political connections and might be more than just friends with President, John F. Kennedy, Adam takes notice. He is consumed by her and wants a chance to get closer to her. So Adam offers to do work around Catherine’s house for her after school. She agrees to hire him if he will landscape her garden for her. Despite their age difference Catherine and Adam start getting along with each other very well. When Adam’s not with Catherine, he’s spying on her and photographing all of the suspicious men who seem to lurk around her house. He soon learns that they are governmental agents who are trying to keep her quiet about what she knows.

Adam’s parents have heard rumors about Catherine and aren’t too happy about their son working for her. They end of allowing it, but when the two start spending more time together and have a few wild adventures, they refuse to let Adam see Catherine again. It just so happens that this is when Catherine needs him the most. With the secrets that Catherine holds, both Adam and Catherine could be in great trouble. As Adam learns more about the truth and what the government would do to keep their secrets he starts to realize how sheltered he has been his whole life.

Cameron Bright does decent as the lead, but there is room for improvement on his part. He shows a curious and overall intelligent teen who is quickly learning more than he is able to swallow. At certain points it would have been nice to have a little more personality to him. There seems to be a certain lack of depth to Adam and Bright’s laid back, slightly awkward, shy approach doesn’t really help us feel like we really know as much as we would like to about his character. Although, it would have been nice to have a little more energy on his part, he still was believable enough and as he was in an awkward stage in his life it was plausible. Gretchen Mol did a fantastic job as the striking, fun, and intelligent Catherine Caswell. She was vibrant and simply glowed throughout the film. She really showed both sides of her character; the glamorous life she held and the pain and trouble she had to endure that made it vital for her to outsmart all of those that were against her. Noah Wyle and Perrey Reeves also did well as the upper class, but somewhat blinded and fake parents who shielded their son from the truth. They were a great representation of the deception that the film depicts.

One of the film’s problems seems to be a lack of depth in characters. However, the only character who is really lacking is our main character, the one that we should understand the most intimately. More complex characters are handled wonderfully and for better or worse we understood who they are and what dictates their thoughts and actions, whether it be their own impulse or not. Yet, Adam is one of the simpler characters; he is young and is only now learning about the world around him. Regardless of this he is not even very conflicted about what he thought he knew and the new realization he has come to. This should have been a fairly easy character to bring about, but the lacking depth holds the film back.

An American Affair is part coming of age film and part political thriller. At some points these two elements work together very well. Through our main character’s connections and newly acquired knowledge of the deceit that the government beholds and acts on ruthlessly he is awakened to the scary truth around him. He is forced to grow up and see the daunting fakeness around him. The film definitely had a lot of potential, but majority of the time it didn’t integrate and work these two aspects off of each other as well as it could have. It’s not very clear what type of film director, William Olsson, wanted this to be. It goes back and forth, seemed staggered and uneven at times, and at other giving us a peek at the potential chemistry the thriller and coming of age aspects could have been portrayed in. The film has confused and lacking moments that hold it back from being a great, but it also hits on very interesting moments of dirty politics, awakening to falsities surrounding you, and an unlikely friendship and understanding.