An American Affair (2009), R

Perrey Reeves and Noah Wyle in An American Affair. (Photo: Screen Media Films)

Starring: Gretchen Mol, James Rebhorn, Cameron Bright

Washington DC, 1963: the Cuban Missile Crisis is last year’s news, and John Fitzgerald Kennedy’s young administration is starting to hit its stride. Behind the scenes, however, winds of discontent are swirling. Thirteen-year-old Adam Stafford has his own problems to deal with. At that uncomfortable age when both everything and nothing seems possible, he’s a bit of a loner, a kid who spends too much time wrapped up in his own thoughts as he suffers through the daily grind of nuns, bullies, and girls at Holy Cross School. Until the evening his adolescent yearnings come to life: Adam spies a beautiful naked woman in the house across the street, and his curiosity is inflamed. The woman is Catherine Caswell, a stunning thirty-something blond beauty who has just moved in. Captivated, Adam is determined to learn all he can about his new neighbor. Catherine is an artist, a divorcee and a confidante (if not more) of JFK. Against all odds, an unlikely friendship blossoms between the innocent thirteen-year-old and the world-weary survivor. But friendship is never enough, not in Washington, and not at the height of the Cold War. Catherine’s hidden past soon catches up with them as she and Adam find themselves enmeshed in the growing confusion and intrigue leading to the assassination of the President.