The Adults

Eric's plan for an as-short-as-possible trip home begins to unravel as he tries to balance his desire to stick around for a local poker game, against his having to spend more time dealing with the damaged relationship between him and his two sisters.

The Adults is the story of three emotionally stunted adult siblings.

Eric is the oldest. He left home years ago for reasons that are unclear, but seem painful. He lives in Portland now, and rarely even calls, let alone ever actually comes home, which is back East somewhere maybe. Judging from the ease with which he can change his schedule, he may be self-employed or recently unemployed, and from the way he brags about his VIP flight status, but stays in basic Holiday Inn-type hotels, he’s probably a traveling salesman or maybe a tech support guy. Whatever the truth, he’s a small fish, with very little going on. He’s back in town for the first time in a long time, nominally to visit an old friend’s baby, while also stopping in quickly to visit his sisters, although it’s clear that he’s only doing that because it’s unavoidable, as he’s only mere blocks away from his childhood home.

In actuality, he wants to play in this rinky-dink little local poker game made up of people he used to know. The film never really addresses it, but Eric may be a bit of gambling addict, something that is only now starting to get him into trouble. Maybe. At the very least, it’s clear that the only real validation he gets in his life comes from winning these small piles of cash.

Then there’s Rachel, the middle child,  a local radio producer fresh out of a long relationship that ended due to infidelity, so she seems sad, and most likely not just due to the break-up either. While she still shows occasional flashes of the playful wit that was may have once been her hallmark, she’s now someone who’s stuck, still living in the family home, most likely because she was cornered years ago into taking on the role of caretaker when whatever it was that happened with their now-dead parents first began.

Rachel holds a lot of animosity for Eric. There’s something big and angry lying between them, something resentful, and it’s a fair bet that it’s wrapped up in Eric having left home awhile ago and never came back, all while she’s been stuck here, picking up pieces and holding things together.

Finally, there’s Maggie, the family baby. She is the most lost of them all, having recently quit college with no apparent plan as to what comes next. She’s also the belabored peacemaker between Eric and Rachel, and clearly desperate for the way they all used to be close. She’s constantly trying to initiate their old games, their old song and dance routines, their old wordplay and patter, their old retinue of characters and silly affectations, constantly dragging the tattered remnants of the vaudeville-like shows they used to do as children out into the sun again, to reinvigorate the old world that was once their own private Narnia. But every attempt only ends up reminding her that this once green and pleasant land they knew together as children is now grey and dead and overgrown with weeds…

Because this is also the story of three emotionally stunted adult siblings who are really bad at communicating with each other.

You get the feeling that their parents have been dead for a while now, which is obviously still unresolved for them, and the main reason behind their estrangement after all these years. But instead of talking about it, the siblings hide behind games and in-jokes and silly voices, and not just for the hard emotional stuff either, but for every day interactions too, and all while an ocean of hurt and anger boils just beneath the surface, so these games and in-jokes and silly voices all have an edge. They often keep the joke going too long, refusing to stop, to let it go, poking and prodding until that edge finally cuts, pushing each other’s buttons until feelings are hurt. These old jokes and routines that once bonded them so tightly now only illustrate how long gone those halcyon days truly are now.

This tension between them is heightened because the story takes place in a very narrow slice of life, only over the course of Eric’s short trip. There’s nothing before, save for a few vague details, and there’s nothing after.

It’s just the three of them, together, all refusing to actually talk to each other.

What went awry in their home that drove Eric away, that stuck Rachel in place, that threw Maggie off track, and drove a wedge between them all? You have a lot of time and a lot of clues as to what that might be, but no real answers. You can assume that the deaths of the parents is the cause, but who knows? It might be more, but you don’t know, which makes sense, as this is, after all, a film is about a family’s inability to communicate, so… this being unclear kind of fits, I guess. But still, ultimately, what’s the point? What’s this film saying? I’m unsure.

Which is the problem.

Even in a slice of life story, that slice still needs a point. What was the point here? Nobody wins. Nobody changes. Did they reconnect? Was the last bit in the film meant to signify a new reconciliation, that a new day was dawning for them, as it were?

I don’t know.

Maybe the film thinks that the lack of answers is more realistic, that life is about the journey and not the destination, and I get that, but… it’s also a story, so I think it’s fair to say that there generally needs to be more of a resolution. This is obviously a quiet family-reunion drama that sets out to be uncomfortable, and it often delivers. As an examination of unaddressed familial pain, it’s very cringey and awkward as it exposes its wounds, often giving you that hollow pit-of-the-stomach feeling of dread whenever the siblings’ interactions get heated. How bad will it get? How long will it last? It’s not that it doesn’t ring true, either, it does. After all, you don’t have to like characters to see that they are honest depictions, but it can still be hard to watch them.

Maybe that’s the point?

The Adults is at times moving, at times cute in its awkward idleness, but it’s mostly a melancholy and unsatisfying lament of times past, filled with either brittle silences or awkward prattle. The cast is good, and like I said, you don’t have to like characters to appreciate the work, but in the end, for me at least, I think there’s too many lingering questions and not enough solid answers.

But if you’re looking for a small family drama of quiet dissatisfaction and barely-addressed hurts, than this story of adult siblings who were once close, but are no longer, may be up your alley.