Adam the First (2024)

2 1/2 Stars (out of 4)

Dad Lands

By Jeffrey M. Anderson

Frequently coming across as shallow or underwritten, and sometimes even exasperating, Irving Franco's Adam the First is nonetheless held together by its undeniable earnestness and its poignant lead performance.

Fourteen-year-old Adam (Oakes Fegley) lives in a trailer in the woods with James (David Duchovny) and Mary (Kim Jackson Davis), who care for him but are honest about the fact that they are not his biological parents. He has been taught to hunt and trap game, to ride horses, to shoot pistols, and even to drive a car.

When this situation is upset by invaders, James gives Adam a list containing three "Jacob Wattersons," one of whom is his biological father. With little to no choice, Adam hits the road. The first Jacob (Eric Hanson) is incarcerated. The second (Jason Dowies) is a humble farmer. The third (Larry Pine) is an artist, who happens to know something about what's not on Adam's list. Together, they head for one last destination.

Adam the First starts well with a scene of James taking a very young Adam out in the woods for a serious talk, telling him for the first time that he's not their biological child. Adam's life in the woods seems to be setting him up for some fish-out-of-water adventures, knowing little about how real life operates, but his first act on the road is to hold up a gun shop, tricking what must be the dumbest gun shop proprietor in history.

He later uses his gun to hitch a ride, but soon the gun is mostly forgotten, and the movie asks us to forgive Adam for his violent threats. (Near the final stretch, he commits another baffling, quasi-illegal act, leaving a dead body and not telling anyone about it.)

The movie's vignette-style storytelling makes it relatively clear which of the Jacobs are not going to be Adam's father, but as it gets to the end, it springs some exceedingly odd, and not altogether ineffective scenes as he gets close to the final truth. One is at a business convention, in which suited men are given one minute to "pitch" each other; Adam sits in and uses the time to find which person in the room is his dad. A final scene includes a karaoke performance that's both strange and bittersweet.

Adam the First is a peculiar, patchwork movie, but Fegley's touching, nuanced performance — embracing danger as well as sorry — and his interactions with actors as good as Duchovny and Pine add up to an experience that's slightly more thoughtful and touching than it is disappointing.