Adam & Paul
| Adam and Paul | |
|---|---|
 DVD cover of Adam and Paul | |
| Directed by | Leonard Abrahamson |
| Written by | Mark O'Halloran |
| Starring | Tom Murphy Mark O'Halloran |
Release date |
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| Country | Template:Film Ireland |
| Language | English |
Adam and Paul is a 2004 Irish film. The plot is centred around a day in the life of two Dublin junkies, Adam and Paul. Adam is the taller and slightly smarter of the two while Paul is his sidekick.
Plot summary
Friends since they were small boys, Adam and Paul have withered into two hopeless, desperate junkies, tied together by habit and necessity. A stylised, downbeat comedy, the film follows the pair through a single day, which, like every other, is entirely devoted to the business of scrounging and robbing money to 'score' drugs.
The difference today is that Adam and Paul – already near rock bottom – have finally run out of luck, credit and friends.
Stylistically, 'Adam & Paul' is a cold, contemporary take on classic, physical comedy. Thematically, it is a minimal, Beckettesque fairytale about two baffled, vulnerable children in the grip of forces too powerful for them to handle; vulnerable, lost, sometimes pathetically optimistic, but always profoundly damaged. 'Adam & Paul', however, is not a film without hope; it is a tender, unsentimental and often very funny testament to the persistence of the human spirit in even the most damaged and marginal of people.
The film opens with the protagonists waking up broke and sick in the middle of a field with Adam glued to a mattress. They make their way into town via a run-in with a terrified and terrifying drug dealer named Martin in Flat 63 of Ballymun Housing, a hasty (nausea-related) exit from the top deck of a bus, a long trudge down the median of a dual carriageway and an unfortunate incident with a moped that injures Paul's leg. Wandering through St Stephen's Green they meet their old gang who are drinking cans and having "a little picnic for the kiddies". Feeling distinctly unwelcome, the boys sit down to a roasting from the terrifying Marian and Orla who are furious with them for not turning up that morning to the month’s mind of Matthew, the boys' best friend and Orla’s brother. Marian, backed up by Wayne (her brother), warns them to stay away from his sister (Janine, a shared girlfriend between the boys). To the disgust of Wayne and the girls, Georgie, a very dim and very alcoholic separated father, lets slip that there is a "do" on for Matthew that night in the Bunker pub.
From here we follow the boys as they wander aimlessly around the city looking for an unknown person – a possible contact that might, just possibly, be able to sort them out with a fix. They have a "who's on first"-style misunderstanding with a homeless boy in a sleeping bag who thinks they're looking for the local troublemaker under the alias of "Clank" who he decides owes them money; Paul hurts his hand in a half-arsed attempt at a smash and grab; they get kicked out of a Café for trying to steal a handbag and Paul gets barred from a shop for "feelin' bread". After a mild altercation with a Bulgarian immigrant, and failing to get anywhere in their search for drugs, they finally, and in the face of Wayne’s dire warning, make their way to Janine’s. She’s not there but the door is open. The boys are just about to steal her telly, when the sound of a baby crying halts them. Janine returns home to find the boys gently holding and whispering to the baby. They leave Janine with the promise that they will see her again that night in the Bunker.
The pair mug an adolescent with Downs syndrome, stealing his bus fare. Later at night, a furious man grabs them, accusing them of spreading rumours that he owes them money. He identifies himself as Clank. Clank and his acolyte Zippy kidnap the two and force them to keep a lookout for trouble while they "cause a bit of mayhem" in a nearby garage with bats. However, Adam and Paul are too distracted by a conversation between themselves to alert Clank to the arrival of the police and this results in both Clank and Zippy being arrested.
The pair decide to take Clank's car "around the back of the flats nice and quiet", but crash in the process. Sitting on an old cooker down a back lane, they discover a flat-screen TV. They and Kittser, a stolen goods merchant, take the telly to Ballymun Housing and attempt to sell it to a drunk, older man in one of the flats. But Kittser and the buyer argue, a brawl between them ensues, and the telly gets damaged during the fight, forcing a depressed Adam and Paul to leave the flats. On the way out they pass the door of Martin who is being raided by a gang of vigilantes. As the two sit outside the block, the contents of the dealer's flat, drop to the ground around them, including two bags of heroin.
After getting heavily intoxicated with Adam, Paul wakes up on Dublin Bay the next morning with his friend. He discovers that Adam, who is lying next to him, has died of an overdose. Dejected, Paul leaves with the remainder of the heroin.
Cast
- Adam - Mark O'Halloran
- Paul - Tom Murphy
- Clank - Gerry Moore
- Zippy - Anthony Morris
- Eastern-European Man - Ion Caramitru
- Marian - Deirdre Molloy
- Orla - Mary Murray
- Wayne - Paul Roe
- Kittser - David Herlihy
- Gringo - Eamonn Hunt
Awards and Reception
Adam & Paul' has won the Best Director Award, as well as being nominated in 8 categories for the 2004 Irish Film & Television Award. These include Best Irish Film, Best Script, Best Actor and Best Music.
At the 2005 Berlin Film Festival, 'Adam & Paul' played to an enthusiastic reception as part of the official program of the Panorama section.