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American Affair, An

Generally unfavorable reviews
Based on 12 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 3 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie >
Movie Info
Genre(s): Drama
Written by: Alex Metcalf
Directed by: William Olsson
Release Date:
Theatrical: February 27, 2009
DVD: July 28, 2009
Running Time: 96 minutes, Color
Origin: USA
Summary
RATING: R for sexual content and language
Starring Gretchen Mol, James Rebhorn, Cameron Bright, Perrey Reeves, Mark Pellegrino, and Noah Wyle
Washington DC, 1963: the Cuban Missile Crisis is last year’s news, and John Fitzgerald Kennedy’s young administration is starting to hit its stride. Behind the scenes, however, winds of discontent are swirling. Thirteen-year-old Adam Stafford has his own problems to deal with. At that uncomfortable age when nothing seems possible, he’s a bit of a loner, a kid who spends too much time wrapped up in his own thoughts as he suffers through the daily grind of nuns, bullies, and girls at Holy Cross School. Until the evening his adolescent yearnings come to life: Adam spies a beautiful naked woman in the house across the street, and his curiosity is inflamed. Catherine Caswell, a stunning thirty-something blond beauty, has just moved in. Captivated, Adam is determined to learn all he can about his new neighbor. (Screen Media Gems)
Also On The Web: Internet Movie Database Official Studio Site
What The Critics Said
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
New York Magazine David Edelstein
The reason to see An American Affair is Gretchen Mol. She has a mild, natural way of holding herself that's likably unactressy--in every film, she seems both smart and grounded.
Read Full Review >Washington Post Dan Zak
The film rises above its conventions. Just when it seems to be a fable of sexual initiation, An American Affair pivots away from sex. Just when it seems to be a re-dredging of the Kennedy mystique, it pushes past history. Thoughtfully and imperfectly, it dramatizes the flight from childhood, the surrender to adulthood and the pieces of us that survive.
Read Full Review >New York Post Kyle Smith
Even Oliver Stone would giggle at the notion that the CIA couldn't reach JFK through any means except via one of his blond playmates.
Read Full Review >Los Angeles Times Betsy Sharkey
A mess of a film that can't quite figure out what it wants to be: an illicit love story, a political thriller or a coming-of-age set piece
Read Full Review >Village Voice Vadim Rizov
Only Noah Wyle, as Adam's unreadable dad, rises above the muck; he deserves his Tarantino-aided resurrection sooner rather than later.
Read Full Review >The Hollywood Reporter Kirk Honeycutt
A coming-of-age tale and a JFK assassination conspiracy movie. The first half of that equation works nicely...But the assassination story line is absurd.
Read Full Review >USA Today Claudia Puig
An American Affair is sordid business blandly portrayed and not worth meddling with.
Read Full Review >Variety John Anderson
Like many aspects of An American Affair, the music and the lopsided dramatic priorities take the viewer right out of the movie.
Read Full Review >NPR Bob Mondello
Hard to say what's dumber, the premise or the characters in William Olsson's trashily preposterous An American Affair.
Read Full Review >The New York Times Stephen Holden
Were it a farce instead of an earnest, paranoid thriller with pretensions to historicity, An American Affair might not seem so offensively exploitative. The fact that it is quite well acted, especially by Ms. Mol, who has the air of a sophisticated 1960s party animal down pat, only compounds the insult.
Read Full Review >New York Daily News Joe Neumaier
This is one of those films in which almost every element is done in such an embarrassingly amateurish way, you want to put it out of its misery.
Read Full Review >Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern
I have no idea how such shameless prattle found its way to the screen.
Read Full Review >What Our Users Said
The average user rating for this movie is 8.3 (out of 10) based on 3 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
Jay H. gave it a7:
I don't see why this got such dreadful reviews, I thought was intriguing and well acted, particularly Gretchen Mol. I never lost interest, great cinematography. Fascinating plot.
