‘Adult Adoption’: Glasgow Review

Dir: Karen Knox. Canada. 2022. 90 mins.

If there’s a sure-fire way to secure a complex role in a movie, it’s writing it yourself and Canadian-British star Ellie Moon – who already written a string of plays – does exactly that here, teaming up with actor/showrunner-turned-director Karen Knox for this quirky comedy drama about a young woman finding her way in the world some years after ageing out of foster care. Tapping into the relatable opposing fears of fitting in and being yourself, this sweet-natured film could easily find favour with festivals and indie distributors in addition to being a showcase for Moon’s onscreen abilities.

Embraces the often unexpectedly warm messiness of real life.

Rosy (Moon) is now in her mid-20s, but you might not guess that by looking at the soft toys in her pink explosion of a bedroom, the stickers that dance up the wall of her workstation at the telephone banking operation where she works, or the handmade, glittery leaving card she has just crafted for her retiring boss. Rosy has an energy that vacillates between childlike enthusiasm and nervous anxiety but is, in no sense, a hopeless case. She’s holding down a decent job and is liked by her co-workers, but there’s a sense of adolescent naivety and clumsiness about Rosy as she both struggles with the bigness of relationships and the smallness of opening packets of sugar. She has a longing for connection but also harbours fears about it: she is as likely to bolt from human touch in her yoga class as she is to ask a random upset stranger if they’d like a hug.

As she makes tentative dating moves, resulting in a hook up with Dan (Donald Maclean Jr) – who achieves almost pixie dream boy levels of niceness – Rosy also opens up to her colleague Helen (Leah Doz), about her past. Helen, who has a thing for healing crystals, therapy and calling her mum, suggests Rosy try to find adults to adopt her because, after all, “everything’s a thing” now. It’s a scene that emphasises Moon’s knack for capturing the often awkward sweetness of human interactions, with Helen earnest yet clumsy in a way that isn’t so far removed from Rosy despite her easier upbringing.

As Rosy takes online steps to meet a prospective “dad” Brian (Michael Healey) and, separately, a “mum” Jane (Rebecca Northan), she also becomes increasingly concerned about a childhood group home friend, Nola (Chelsea Muirhead), who is trying to transfer cash to a suspicious-sounding “new family”. While this may be one plot strand too many, Knox, stepping up to features after several shorts, ensures we stick with Rosy, often letting her face or her body language fill the frame. High energy, emotionally raw hyperpop music from the likes of Casey MQ that she listens to on her headphones also cues the audience into Rosy’s energy.

Rosy’s encounters are viewed from her character’s perspective so that, like her, we’re unsure as to the motivations of Dan, Brian and Jane, an ambivalence that adds an underlying tension to the film’s more comic moments. Moon’s playwrighting history pokes through the script occasionally, as she sometimes struggles to make the connecting moments between scenes flow freely.

Once she’s in a scene itself, however, she strikes a good balance between everyday absurdity and underlying emotion. The film finds laughs, for example, in the ridiculously ornate food served up at the place where Rosy first meets Brian, but also poignancy in a knitted blanket which will teach Rosy that rejection might not always be the end of the world. Adult Adoption is scattered with many such little lessons about connections found in unexpected places without labouring the point, and embraces the often unexpectedly warm messiness of real life.