‘Adam’s Sake’ review: Critics Week opens with tense hospital drama from ’Playground’s Laura Wandel

Dir: Laura Wandel. Belgium/France. 2025. 78 minutes.

Lucy (Léa Drucker) is a nurse on a paediatric unit in a busy unnamed hospital, the place we be part of her mid-shift in a tense character examine that not solely takes the temperature of contemporary public drugs but additionally suggests love could be harmful on the unsuitable dosage. Chief amongst Lucy’s sufferers – though on no account the one draw on her consideration – is 4 year-old Adam (Jules Delsart). Nursing a damaged arm he suffered because of being malnourished, he’s together with his younger single mum Rebecca (Anamaria Vartolomei), who has been given courtroom entry to him twice a day as a result of he refuses to eat something with out her. Author/director Laura Wandel immerses us within the interaction between the trio throughout the course of a day as issues mount.

The Belgian filmmaker is returning to Cannes to open Critics’ Week after Playground, her intense breakout debut about college bullying, took dwelling the FIPRESCI prize within the Un Sure Regard part in 2021. Wandel’s follow-up isn’t as morally advanced and, given the regular circulation of properly polished hospital movies and tv dramas, additionally not as distinctive when it comes to subject material. However, it stays an emotionally clever and taut entry within the discipline. Screening out of competitors, Adam’s Sake will likely be distributed in France by Memento and the highly effective performances from Occurring star Vartolomei and Drucker (Custody, Shut) ought to assist it garner consideration additional afield.

When Lucy brings a plate of meals, instructing Rebecca to present it to Adam, earlier than leaving to test on different sufferers, it’s instantly apparent that what’s feeding mom and son is the concern of separation. Adam continuously watches his mom and he or she, in flip, hugs him tightly at virtually each flip. There’s a bruised high quality to the performances from Vartololmei and Delsart because the characters mirror each other’s temper. Like Lucy, we don’t have to be instructed any backstory to see they’ve been by way of the mill. The sense of bruising extends to the color palette which feels stripped of heat. Even the balloons meant to strike a cheery word on the ward are a cold, tearful blue.

In distinction to Rebecca, Lucy has a watchful however no-nonsense air. Cinematographer Frédéric Noirhomme, reteaming with Wandel after Playground, typically trails within the nurse’s wake within the model of the Dardenne Brothers as she strides by way of the hospital’s corridors, giving us a way of the bodily floor she is overlaying as she offers with an assortment of younger sufferers. The emotional terrain that she is navigating is simply as arduous. It’s notable that quite than sick youngsters being the issue, it’s their mother and father which can be typically extra needy, whether or not it’s being pushy about who’s inspecting their offspring or counting on their little one to translate what’s being stated.

As Lucy calmly tries to win Rebecca’s belief, which isn’t the identical as trusting her, the determined mom’s more and more rash actions are coupled with strain from Lucy’s colleagues, who assume she’s too targeted on the case. The quick period of time Rebecca is allowed to spend with Adam plus the time left on Lucy’s shift add to the propulsive sense of a clock ticking, with on a regular basis inconveniences, equivalent to entry badges not working appropriately, including to the stress.

Vartolomei turns Rebecca right into a fountain of emotion, dousing everybody inside proximity and threatening to drown herself within the course of. Drucker, in contrast, fills Lucy with a type of pent-up power that bubbles up in bursts to the floor throughout moments of hand scrubbing or talking to her personal little one on the telephone. The texture of being in a real hospital surroundings is enhanced by the dearth of rating, making the sound design all of the extra distinguished. Adam’s snuffly respiration displays his emotional state, whereas different hospital feels like a child crying add to the sense of strain on the wards that’s enjoying out simply past our sight.

Wandel takes a non-judgemental strategy to the characters, indicating that whereas Rebecca helps neither herself or Adam, neither is the system that’s trying to care and shield them. Whereas too muted to be a celebration, this can be a compelling recognition of the Lucys of this world, who go on caring above and past the decision of obligation and towards the percentages.