Adore (also known as Adoration) is a 2013 Australian-French drama film directed by Anne Fontaine and based on the novella The Grandmothers by Doris Lessing. Starring Naomi Watts and Robin Wright, the film tells a provocative and emotionally complex story about love, desire, and moral boundaries — exploring what happens when two lifelong friends fall in love with each other’s sons.

Set in a picturesque coastal town in New South Wales, the film follows Lil and Roz, two women who have been inseparable since childhood. They live next door to each other by the ocean, their lives intertwined by years of shared experiences, laughter, and loss. Both are in their forties, confident and independent, yet facing the quiet loneliness that can come with middle age.

Roz is married but emotionally distant from her husband, while Lil is a widow raising her teenage son, Ian, on her own. Their friendship is as close as family — until something shifts. One summer afternoon, Ian confesses his growing attraction to Roz, and she, caught off guard but equally drawn to him, gives in to her desire. What begins as a single impulsive act turns into an ongoing secret affair that neither of them fully understands.

When Tom, Roz’s son, discovers their relationship, he reacts in anger and disbelief — only to later fall into a similar entanglement with Lil. The balance between the two families collapses, replaced by a web of passion, jealousy, and emotional confusion. The women, now both involved with each other’s sons, must confront the taboo they have created — and the consequences it has for their families and their own sense of self.

The film does not treat the situation as mere scandal. Instead, it explores the emotional truth beneath the taboo — the loneliness, the desire to feel alive again, the deep intimacy between Lil and Roz that perhaps transcends even their relationships with the young men. Fontaine’s direction treats the women not as immoral figures, but as human beings caught between yearning and responsibility. Their relationships are portrayed with tenderness and restraint, but also with a sense of inevitable tragedy.

The setting — the sunlit beaches and glittering ocean — mirrors the duality of the story. The sea is open, beautiful, and free, yet also dangerous and uncontrollable, much like the passions that drive the characters. The cinematography captures this tension perfectly: tranquil on the surface, but with an undercurrent of emotional turbulence.

Both Naomi Watts and Robin Wright deliver deeply nuanced performances. Wright’s Roz is quietly tormented, aware of the boundaries she’s crossing but powerless to resist the affection she feels. Watts’s Lil is more impulsive and emotional, her choices guided by instinct and a longing for connection. Their chemistry — as both friends and silent rivals — gives the film its raw emotional depth.

The young men, Ian and Tom, portrayed by Xavier Samuel and James Frecheville, add to the moral complexity. For them, the relationships begin as passion and curiosity, but soon evolve into something more serious — a mix of love, loyalty, and confusion. Over time, they, too, must face adulthood, loss, and the realization that some loves cannot survive the light of day.

Adore is not a moral tale or a condemnation; it is a meditation on human vulnerability — on how desire can arise where it shouldn’t, and how connection sometimes defies logic or convention. It asks difficult questions: Can love be wrong if it feels true? Can passion coexist with guilt? And what happens when the boundaries between friendship, family, and romance dissolve?

By the end, years have passed. The affairs fade into memory, but their emotional impact lingers. The women remain bound by friendship — older, wiser, and scarred by what they’ve lived through. The film closes not on judgment, but on quiet reflection, suggesting that love, in all its forms, is both a gift and a wound.

In essence, Adore is a visually beautiful and emotionally daring film about female desire, moral ambiguity, and the price of intimacy. It explores love that defies convention, friendship that endures through scandal, and the human need to feel seen — even when that need leads us into the most forbidden of places.