Some films make an obvious attempt to fit a certain niche. For example, Dead Poets Society fits the coming-of-age, young intellectual mold. An American Affair, on the other hand, tries its hand at many different niches, succeeding in fulfilling their requirements with varying degrees of success. Luckily, the film is executed well enough to be entertaining, though not brilliant.
The film is set in the Georgetown neighborhood during the 1960s. Thirteen-year-old Adam Stafford is just hitting puberty, running head-first into his sexuality when a beautiful, mysterious woman moves in across the street from him. Unsurprisingly, she quickly grabs the attention of our young voyeur.
From there, the film’s story unravels into two plots, each connected by Adam’s burgeoning sexuality. On one level is Adam’s life at his elite Catholic prep school. Flirting with girls, fighting with boys, and pestering nuns all figure largely in the familiar, coming-of-age-at-preparatory-school portion of the film.
This plot quickly becomes a side-story, however, as Adam sets his bird-watching kit on his new neighbor, Catherine Caswell. After offering to do her gardening, Adam becomes increasingly involved in the life of this lonely and deeply flawed Marilyn Monroe lookalike.
However, he soon realizes that the woman of his dreams is intrinsically linked to that world he sees every night when his parents turn on the news. Every night he spies the Secret Service escorting President Kennedy into her house. CIA men in trench coats visit her night and day. Her many lovers are members of the Washington power elite.
Both plots progress in a traditional, albeit entertaining, manner. Adam asks a girl out and experiences his first kiss. He even plays “spin the bottle” at an archetypical boy-girl party. The real strength of the film lies in these moments, where the directors neither idealize nor moralize the adolescent’s life. Adam makes mistakes and fumbles his way through male rivalry and female attention. Along the way, he does not solve these problems in one grand flourish. In fact, he never escapes many of them.
As a political thriller, An American Affair is much weaker. Beyond being obviously unrealistic, it devolves into caricatures of both the Kennedy sexual libido and CIA tenacity, resulting in the least convincing of assassination conspiracy theories. Fueled by a desire to warn the president of a danger only she knows about, Catherine shows a plastic and even laughable appreciation of presidential politics.
Although the film attempts to capture the spirit of the age through film clips and 1960s dress, it never manages to make the vibrant politics and culture of the era come alive. The life of the movie was sent somewhere else—to the timeless setting of Georgetown itself. Adam’s parents are journalists; he lives in a red-brick townhouse and has a dentist in the Federal Triangle. The infamous Exorcist stairs figure prominently, playing host to yet another cinematic death scene.
An American Affair is a collage of many tried and true themes. It has a young boy coming to terms with maturity and sex. It has a free and vibrant female brought down by her own limitations. It has the intrigue of power politics. If any of these trite tropes count as your favorite genre or sub-genre, this film is worth your time. If you are merely fond of these themes and expect more from a film, don’t bother.
