Konterr Brilliant and touching

Ella-May O'Brien Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

Billy Ollie Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

Cristal The movie really just wants to entertain people.

frncsbrennan Adam is a 13 year old boy who has just discovered his sexuality. He is not so popular at school and takes a few beatings, but he at least has a prospective girlfriend; that is, until one night while perusing a Playboy magazine in his room he sees the real thing from his window, a beautiful woman semi-naked, right across the street. From that point, Adam is obsessed with this woman, Catherine. Most women would have sent him on his way for his own good, but Catherine is confused and conflicted, and she is a painter, a bohemian artist who is just ending an affair with JFK, and her ex-husband works for the CIA. She is flattered by his interest and boldness, and soon begins to really care about him. The JFK/CIA angle in this film is the weakest part of this movie; it just seems too far fetched. This film would have been just fine without that subplot. The interaction between an older woman who is trying to find herself, and the infatuation of a young boy with her made for some real interest. The ending of this movie is very touching.

njmollo An American Affair is a shamelessly anachronistic picture. The characters may dress in period clothes but their performances are very much of this era, 2009. There is liberal use of "modern" swear words that feel out of place in a movie set in this period. My first thought was that racial integration looked to be working a charm in this impression of 1960's America, as Black and White students go to class together, hang-out in the playground and even socialise at each others homes. Racism, still so prevalent in modern day America, is not broached in this movie.The picture begins as a point of view of a young student played superbly by the photogenic Cameron Bright. Cameron Bright is this movies saving grace and all the scenes without him feel forced and unnecessary. If it is established to be his view of the world then how can scenes take place in which he is not present and would have no knowledge? The integration of these scenes is forced and awkward.At one point he follows and listens to some evil CIA types. How would he be able to hear such a guarded conversation? Let alone be undiscovered. The scene is utterly implausible. Also the boy takes photos at night of his alluring next door neighbour. How could he do this with a normal 1960's manual camera? Suspension of disbelief is fine if presented plausibly.Finally the famous Washington stairs location that was used so definitively in The Exorcist (1973) makes a conspicuous appearance. This took me out of the movie completely and cheapened any impact of the ending.

Roland E. Zwick Written by Alex Metcalf and directed by William Olsson, "An American Affair" at least earns points for originality. For what starts out as a fairly conventional coming-of-age tale set in 1963 Washington D.C. suddenly turns into a piece of historical fiction when the obligatory older woman 13-year-old Adam Stafford (Cameron Bright) falls madly in love with turns out to be none other than the mistress of President John F. Kennedy himself. Thus, not only is Adam introduced to the wonderful world of raging hormones but to the sociopolitical issues of the day as well.Adam is the son of two journalists who have no clue their child has been peeping into the home across the way, enjoying a full-court view of Catherine Caswell (nicely played by Gretchen Mol), a glamorous divorcée and ex-CIA agent guaranteed to get any healthy young American lad's juices flowing. When Adam introduces himself to her, Catherine hires him on as a gardener, a setup that gives the youngster plenty of opportunity to not only make his move on this prospective conquest but, thanks to her uniquely complicated social life, to have a special behind-the-scenes glimpse into a bit of juicy, albeit undocumented, political history."An American Affair" throws so many disparate elements into the mix - May/December romance (or maybe more like February/August), lurid political melodrama, adolescent wish-fulfillment, cloak-and-dagger espionage, conspiracy-theory speculation - that it can't help but generate a certain fascination, even when the story itself is not all that convincing or the passion for the subject not everything it could be (this applies mainly to the first half).All the "Summer of '42" stuff is, ultimately, far less compelling than the political details of the period, steeped as they are in Kennedy-era glamour and paranoia, with larger-than-life figures acting out a torrid little soap opera in the foreground, while shadowy figures (mainly Cubans and CIA agents) skulk around in the background. The scenes surrounding the assassination are treated with subtlety and restraint, making them all the more heartbreaking and poignant for those in the audience who lived through the experience. In fact, the whole last half hour of the film achieves a haunting sadness that finally penetrates to the very marrow of one's bones.The movie certainly won't solve the puzzle as to "Who killed JFK?," but it has some fun trying to piece it all together.

dbborroughs 13 year old boy strikes up a relationship with a blond divorce artist who is a friend of JFK. As he tries to survive life in Catholic school she tries to survive before her past and connection to the president come back to haunt her. Okay coming of age film is the sort of thing that has too much on its mind. The provocative art for the film has Gretchen Mol semi nude, looking like Marilyn Monroe and seems to portend a film different then the coming of age drama that is on the screen. Perhaps had I known that this was more of a coming of age Tale I might have liked it more than I did. As it is its an okay film about two people coming together to form a friendship. Worth a shot if you run across it.