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American Affair, An
Screen Media Films


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MPAA 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)

GENRE(S):	Drama
WRITTEN BY:	Alex Metcalf
DIRECTED BY:	William Olsson
RELEASE DATE:	Theatrical: February 27, 2009
RUNNING TIME:	96 minutes, Color
ORIGIN:	USA

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

NPR Bob Mondello

Hard to say what's dumber, the premise or the characters in William Olsson's trashily preposterous An American Affair.

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.

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.

Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern

I have no idea how such shameless prattle found its way to the screen.

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American Affair, An Screen Media Films

American Affair, An
Screen Media Films