Adam and Eve

Running time: N/A

Rife with the trials, tribulations, and confusion of modern life, Adam and Eve focuses in on a host of broadcasting professionals in Lisbon, exposing the very real foibles that exist behind the cheerful facade of their on-air personalities. Catarina (Maria De Medeiros) is a successful broadcast journalist who--though involved with another woman--schemes to have a baby, fathered by a world-renowned physician, whom she seduces while on assignment in Madrid. Soon after she learns she is pregnant, she leaves her bisexual lover--who snaps and is institutionalized--and falls in love with her ex-lover's husband, himself a TV talk-show host. In the meantime, the good doctor in Madrid, obsessed with tracking down his one-night stand with whom he has fallen hopelessly in love, discovers her identity and takes off for Portugal to declare his feelings. Though soap-operatic in its construction, Adam and Eve does a credible and entertaining job of addressing some very real modern issues, often with hilarious results. The chemistry of the cast is also first-rate, with Maria De Medeiros delivering a spirited performance. While largely a comedy, Adam and Eve manages to avoid the pitfall of lowest common denominator humor. Characters are vibrant and unafraid to express their emotions, regardless of the consequences. A bright and refreshing film from the lesser-known part of the Iberian peninsula. --Pete Crane