“Adopting Audrey,” the second feature film from director M. Cahill (“King of California”), resembles many of the offbeat domestic dramas that have flocked to the film festival circuit since “Little Miss Sunshine.” A wayward young woman (Jena Malone) seeks guidance, and surly matriarch Otto (Robert Hunger-Buehler) needs human connection to soften her heart. A wayward adult Audrey wants adoption, and that’s how he meets Otto and his lonely wife Sunny (Emily Kuroda).
It’s a little too quirky to fall behind. Cahill has claimed in interviews and press releases that the film is based on a true story, but as a reviewer, Google “types of adult adoptions” to find out about such arrangements outside of a formal contract. I felt the urge to reconfirm its effectiveness. Inheritance and reunion with birth parents. Even if distrust can be put on hold, the bond between Audrey and Otto is weighed down by attempts at lofty dialogue and corny drama.
Otto’s adult children, John (Will Rogers) and Gretchen (Brooke Bloom), suspect their relationship with Audrey is sexual in nature, but the plot ends in a sudden, freak accident. It ends abruptly. Sunny’s misery is treated as a shrug at best and a punch line at worst. And her Cahill attempt to characterize Audrey’s neurosis (she watches puppy videos on her phone for hours on end) is the laziest effort to capture millennial fatigue. maybe.
One bright spot in “Adopting Audrey” is Malone and Hunger Buehler’s acting. Malone, in particular, made a welcome return to the role of the main character.
Adoption of Audrey
Unrated. Running time: 1 hour 32 minutes.Available for rent or purchase at the theater apple tv, google play and other streaming platforms and pay-TV operators.