Adore (2013), marketed as Two Mothers in some territories, is an erotic drama directed by Anne Fontaine and based on Doris Lessings novella Apres. Set in a sun-bleached Australian seaside town, the film confronts taboo emotions and blurred boundaries as two lifelong friends and their teenage sons wrestle with desire, loyalty, and the reorder-ing of family. Naomi Watts and Robin Wright anchor the story with haunting, vulnerable performances that reveal how unconventional love can reshape identity and, at times, strain the bonds meant to protect it.
Plot Synopsis
The narrative opens on Roz (Naomi Watts) and Lil (Robin Wright), inseparable mothers who share morning routines and long afternoons beside the saltwater. Their teenage sons Tom (Xavier Samuel) and Ian (James Frecheville), friends since infancy, drift together as easily as the mothers drift apart from watchful parenting. One summer, however, Rozs flighty daughter Alice (Mamie Gummer) begins to push against the familys casual rules, claiming a free-spirited season of her own.
Within days of the festivals, secret liaisons take root. Roz and Ian slip away for hushed rendezvous, while Lil and Tom ignite their own hidden bond. An undercurrent of anxiety courses through both pairs as the women try to untangle maternal passion from duty to family. Neither couple knows of the others existence until the web unravels in bright daylight. When Lil stumbles on Rozs tie to Ian, the sting of Anita-like treachery cuts deep, and the fragile world Roz has built begins to collapse.
As weeks stretch into a humid August, everyone grows emotionally weary. Tom and Ian, alone and together, grapple with guilt, raw youth, and clashing loyalties. Lil becomes pregnant with Toms child, crystallising the tensions and tearing old friendships apart. From that fracture the story angles toward repair; the cast work, however awkwardly, to re-establish some kind of equilibrium. Roz emigrates with Alice; Ian leaves for the States school where his mother lives. A little older at departure, Tom steps into both fatherhood and the difficult role of surrogate parent in a splintered clan.
The final shot sees Roz and Lil estranged yet linked by a store of intimate disasters. Their bond now bears the imprint of regret, bittersweet love, and the memories they cannot erase. The screen fades, but the lingering sense is of cautious continuity, not clean closure; life, like grief, simply subsides into a quieter phase.
Cast & Characters
Roz (Naomi Watts) moves through the story with an easy grace that masks deeper feelings. Her sudden attraction to Ian surprises even her, pulling her between motherly duty and private desire. She thus blends sensual freedom with caring protectiveness.
Lil (Robin Wright) looks practical on the surface, yet her discipline gives way to fierce emotion around Tom. Wright shows this struggle through small gestures, making every sigh and pause speak volumes about Lil’s internal fight.
Ian (James Frecheville) feels tender and unsure, caught between boyhood dreams and adult pressure. His secret bond with Roz awakens both dread and hope as he wrestles with identity, family duty, and how the world will judge him.
Tom (Xavier Samuel) strides in with bravado, enchanted by Lil’s calm strength. Yet beneath that confidence lies the sting of feeling used; the pull of a hidden connection ultimately shapes him by the last scene.
Alice (Mamie Gummer), Roz’s teenage daughter, watches the rift widen and nurses silent resentment toward her mother and everyone else.
Emma Booth plays Coral, a neighbor who offers loyal friendship, while Stuart Coghill adds local color through small-town chatter and casual encounters.
Themes & Analysis
Forbidden Desire and Taboo
At the story’s core, two women in their forties each become involved with the other’s teenage son, pushing against accepted social and family boundaries. Rather than exploit the taboo, the film digs into the emotional mess that follows guilt, longing, and an old intimacy that never quite faded. Viewers see mothers both tender and conflicted, sharing laughter one moment and wrestling with shame the next.
Friendship and Betrayal
Roz and Lil have leaned on each other for thirty years, yet that bond is the first thing thrown onto the altar of their hidden desires. Their affairs reveal a deeper, unvoiced discontent that simmered beneath child-rearing routines and tidy household fronts. When trust shatters, each woman must confront what it means to betray a friend, redefine her own story, and learn whether loyalty can survive secrets that change everything.
Motherhood and Emotional Responsibility
Sex may draw viewers in, yet the film spends just as much energy answering tough questions about mothering. Roz and Lil lurch between protecting their children and surrendering to attraction, blurring the line family demands they never cross. The fallout an unplanned pregnancy, a split household, and ghosts of past wounds push the audience to reconsider what care really means and where love tips into selfishness.
The Passage of Time and Change
Set against sweeping ocean views and receding daylight, the coastal town in the film becomes a powerful symbol of memory and the fleetingness of youth. Scenes chart how lives alter: teenagers mature, bonds shift, and romantic ties wobble. Adore ultimately probes whether love-expressed even outside accepted norms-can survive intact or if it must yield to the weight of duty.
Emotional Cost vs Physical Pleasure
Erotic sequences abound, yet the camera never ignores the shadow of inner conflict that hovers over each rendezvous. What begins as shared pleasure soon confronts guilt, prompting audiences to wonder if momentary joy justifies the protracted turmoil that almost always follows.
Direction and Visual Style
Anne Fontaine steers this delicate dance between desire and restraint with a steady, unhurried hand. Her tempo mirrors inner feelings more than outside events, allowing quiet pauses to speak volumes. Cinematographer Christophe Beaucarne soaks frames in the warm light of the golden hour, then contrasts open beaches with cramped rooms that suggest both freedom and invisible bars.
A spare piano-and-strings score echoes the storys mood swings, shifting from wistful longing to raw heartbreak almost on cue. Costumes do similar work: loose summer clothes signal moments of escape; stiff, tailored garments mark staged family confrontations.
Reception and Interpretation
Critics offered a split verdict on Adore, balancing admiration with reservation. Naomi Watts and Robin Wright consistently drew the warmest notices, their performances humanizing morally tangled roles and grounding the film in genuine emotion rather than mere provocation.
Reviewers also remarked on the movie’s deliberate pace and lean story; those qualities that create intimacy left some audience members feeling emotionally lopsided or unsettled by ambiguity that never quite resolves.
The core idea-middle-aged women pursuing romance with teenage men-stirred debate. Rather than admonishing the characters, however, the script welcomes viewers inside their thoughts and shows the raw, sometimes painful truth of what they feel.
Because Adore is intellectually ambitious and stylistically restrained, late-night arthouse crowds still esteem it. Mainstream moviegoers hesitated, making the film beloved yet never widely seen.
Legacy and Cultural Resonance
Even amid scandalous premises, Adore prioritizes emotional subtleties. Few big-budget features have approached similar territory with such tonally even and respectful brush strokes, allowing it to guide later talks about sex, motherhood, and friendship on-screen.
Although it never topped box-office charts, the film thrives on streaming and circulates happily through festivals. Fans of slow-burn plots loaded with moral grey zones and thick emotional currents continue to discover and champion it.
Conclusion
Adore offers a richly textured exploration of forbidden desire, moral dissonance, and love’s unpredictable power. Anchored by commanding female performances and confident direction, the film shuns easy interpretation and compels viewers to consider affection outside established social norms. In examining erotic attraction alongside maternal instinct, it serves as a provocative meditation on how living passionately—beyond accepted boundaries—can liberate the heart yet leave scars too deep to heal. The narrative judges no one; it mourns its characters, embracing their fleeting joy, lamenting their mistakes, and acknowledging their persistent human suffering. By the final scene—quiet, reflective, and deliberately unresolved—the film lingers like an unfinished thought, inviting audiences to witness love in all its untidy complexity.
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