Adam & Paul

This is a touching and frank portrayal of a day in the life of two Dublin junkies called Adam and Paul and their modern day "odessy" around Dublin, a Dublin not often seen on screen.

Adam and Paul have reached rock bottom and spend their entire day walking around Dublin trying to beg, borrow or steal enough money to secure their next fix. There are some bittersweet moments of comedy that come from tragedy in it's rawest form with both of the lead actors turning in excellent performances as the down and out Adam and Paul.

The fact that the film makers manage to get the audience on the side of Adam and Paul is a testament to how well written and acted a piece this is. It's hard not to empathise with them as they struggle to find their next fix.

This is a story that will stay with you.

One of the first comments in the movie becomes the corner post of the irony of urban life. Paul states "I feel sorry for those Bulgarians.." while living in conditions that are as bad as anywhere. The actors did a great job, and you feel hungry and cold and angst with them. If the director's intention was to get viewers to feel empathy for the main characters, it works well.

The setting, the boy's hometown neighborhood, provides links to the boys' past and some later conversation gives an indication how their state of affairs came to be. The pace is a bit slow, but dramatic rather than boring. Making movies about junkies, it's easy to be dramatic and provide impact, this one does well. Not as graphic as it could have been, but definitely satisfying. Entertaining and quite sobering, probably a good watch for any 14yr old urban male as an education of consequences.

One of the best films at the Berlinale Film Festival. Gritty, disturbing with doses of black humour thrown in. The characters are likable and the film never dives into emotional manipulation. It's social realism at it's finest, creatively shot and brilliantly acted. Poignant and unforgettable.

The dynamics between the two characters are fascinating. Childhood friends, thrown together since age fourteen, living on the streets, without hope, full of despair, Adam constantly berates and yells at Paul but there is above all, a deep, lasting bond between them. They are despicable characters in so many ways, but there is such tragedy in their eyes and so much despair in their bones, and you end up feeling for them, and a certain innate understanding and empathy. They're outcasts with zero future. They're the "pathetic" people we walk past and ignore every day, and, in the film, they mesmerize.

Somebody said to me it's like Trainspotting without the humour. I'd say it's like Trainspotting, but without the over the top camera tricks, visualizations and the like. There is more social reality and despair, ala Mike Leigh. There is humour, but on a more subtle level.

It sticks with you.

It takes some work to make anyone feel sorry for junkies but 'Adam and Paul' is a film that succeeds beyond any expectation. Yes, it shows the appalling lives of two junkies who have clearly been 'down so long' they have pretty much lost contact with reality, but it also makes you laugh, for even in their lives there is sometimes something amusing.

It's grim and the words 'with hilarious consequences' are not going to appear in my review, but the film does show there is still some humanity in them, particularly in the scenes with their pal. Yes, their condition makes them dislikeable people who are always on the look out for money to steal and people to scam from, but we are asked to appreciate that there is a glimmer of hope: no matter how dim.

A must see film, but make sure you're in an optimistic frame of mind before you go in, because 'Adam and Paul' will take its toll on the sunniest disposition.

A film about two messers with much to live for and very little to love.

The two characters wake up on mattress in the middle of a field in which one of them finds themselves glued to;

Things cant possibly get worse for these to but that's all that seems to happen to these to supposedly harmless and unintentionally witty degenerates. The new breed of dubs who have hit rock bottom but seem to stay down there in a hopeless dead-headed fashion.

The dialog and characters melt into an almost beckett-like feel, but don't be fooled there is no particular art in this, but sheer desperation and hopelessness.

Both characters are met with hostility and mistrust almost everywhere they go.

One f**k up after another leads them into some kind of divine miracle of two bags of heroin that literally falls out of the sky.

The hardest thing about watching this film is working out whether it is a tragic- comedy or the lines and characters are actually played the way it would have been in real life. God know, if you have ever lived in Dublin these lads are all over the place. Lads who came from nothing with nothing to give the world let alone themselves but somehow survive in a frowned upon but reluctantly accepted way of life.

The movie struck a note with me and left me feeling sad and hopeless for our two leads. i guess there is no hope after all.

Like Intermission it had that 'real dublin' feel to it but i'd say even darker.

It deserves to be seen so far as it was probably made for a couple of hundred thousand euro's as the performances are strong and varied.

'this is not a commercial movie and 'i don't think it will make much of name for itself but it deserves to be seen by those who would appreciate it for what it is.

A slice of bleak reality in modern day Dublin city.