Roz (Robin Wright) and Lil (Naomi Watts) have been friends since childhood, growing up on the Australian coast and becoming so inseparable that their houses are right next door to each other. It only makes sense that their sons, Tom (James Frecheville) and Ian (Xavier Samuel) should share a similar bond, and indeed the relationship between the boys echoes the friendship between their mothers.
This all becomes very complicated one evening when Ian decides to put the moves on Roz, who resists only enough to seem polite before succumbing to his charms. When Tom comes out of the kitchen to see his mother exiting his best friend’s room in the middle of the night, he doesn’t march in and begin throwing punches – instead, he decides to take revenge by making a pass at Ian’s mother, who puts up much more of a fight before finally giving in, as well.
With this setup, you would expect things to go terribly wrong and for everyone’s relationship to be destroyed, but Adore takes a decidedly different approach. Instead, the two “couples” (for lack of a better word) continue on with their affairs, and everyone seems to be at ease – until Tom goes away for a month and returns with a love interest his own age, setting in motion a chain of events that will inevitably lead to heartbreak.
Adore won’t be for everyone, as the premise may be a bit too much for some people to buy into, not to mention the dreamlike setting on an island paradise where the sun always shines, the water is always blue, and no one seems to notice the two middle-aged women sleeping with each other’s hot-bodied surfer sons. But the performances are strong, particularly from Wright and Watts, and the film is just different enough from the “normal” trashy romance stuff to warrant another look.