Young Adam: Rating: 4 stars

Ewan McGregor can drive my coal barge any day.

Young Adam (2003)
2003 · R · Drama
Reviewed September 13, 2006

Ewan McGregor plays an enigmatic drifter who finds work on a coal barge, and Tilda Swinton is the unfulfilled wife of his employer. While their mutual attraction grows, the drifter discovers the body of a young woman floating in the river — but does he know more about her fate than he’s letting on? It’s a quiet movie, telling the story mostly through images rather than words; visually and musically, it’s a lovely film. Topic-wise, it’s downright chilling; once we learn about the drifter’s connection to the dead girl, his character shifts gently from seductive, sympathetic young fellow to conflicted-yet-calculating self-server. One minute you hate him for being so selfish, the next minute you empathize as he tries to do the right thing. There’s nobody named Adam in the movie; the title is a Biblical reference to the first man and his struggle with temptation. And, though you can’t always sympathize with the drifter’s temptations, you learn to understand what makes him tick; like a Ruth Rendell story, this is a chillingly intimate character piece that allows you to crawl inside a “villain’s” head.