The 2025 Cannes Critics’ Week Opening Film Adam’s Sake (L’intérêt d’Adam) arrives with a heavy battle against morality. Laura Wandel’s second feature sets Léa Drucker and Anamaria Vartolomei up for the performance of a lifetime in a tale of two women bound by care and responsibility on different wavelengths.
Mother is not listening to the officers wanting her to be away from her son’s side. All she wants right now is to be with her kid, every second of the day, without a single form of interruption. Mother believes her son needs her, and she needs him too—more than anything. As the instruction to leave becomes overwhelming, she retaliates and asks her 4-year-old son, “Tell them, who do you want to be with?” The son looks right at his mother and says, “I want you, but I don’t want to be dead.” Mother stares and becomes immobilized. Speechless, she keeps looking at her son, eyes locked on him, gripped by a form of guilt that grasps her soul indefinitely.
Exhaustion weighs heavy on the medical staff—and let’s face it, their fatigue is real. All the years of me watching Grey’s Anatomy and the recent The Pitt have given me a foundation to comprehend the milieu in hospitals: the chaos, the vulnerabilities, the bustle—to a certain extent. Yet it barely scratches the surface, as the system carries vast complexity, depending on demography and situation.
Laura Wandel’s second feature, Adam’s Sake (L’intérêt d’Adam), takes place in a busy general hospital, where nurse Lucy (Léa Drucker) is seen handling pediatric patients of all levels—including Adam (Jules Delsart), who is admitted for malnutrition. Adam’s mother, Rebecca (Anamaria Vartolomei), is given limited visitation rights due to a court mandate, having been charged with causing her son’s condition. As tensions rise between Rebecca, Adam, and nurse Lucy, a real-time day unfolds, filled with complications that shape the lives of everyone involved.
At this point, I’m certain that Laura Wandel is a connoisseur of stories concerning children (Un Certain Regard 2021 selection Playground focused on two kids facing school bullying), especially intricate issues involving emotions and bonds. In Rebecca, we witness an overbearing mother who goes against medical advice, fiercely resisting hospital food for her son, convinced that it’s the cause of his illness. Then there’s Adam, whose innocence and complete trust in his mother’s word become a heartbreaking lens through which pain is transmitted. Nurse Lucy, attentive and instinctive, periodically checks on Adam and Rebecca, trying to understand the mother’s resistance.
Both Léa Drucker and Anamaria Vartolomei deliver powerhouse performances that act like virtual magnets, commanding our attention without pause. Phenomenal isn’t the only word that defines them. Drucker doesn’t just play a nurse—she becomes a force of nature, tearing through professional boundaries with raw, magnetic conviction. Her struggle is deeply felt. Vartolomei’s haunting portrayal of pure devotion, sliding into obsession, is praise-worthy. Through her tears and piercing stares, the sacred bond between mother and child becomes vividly real.
Adam’s Sake finds pure emotional truth in its gripping tale, where a battle against morality rages on without pause. The film offers a systemic analysis of power dynamics in a flawed system and a brutal clash of perspectives—safeguarding vs. freedom, love vs. nurturing. Wandel isn’t interested in assigning blame; there are no villains here. Instead, there are two very different women, both trying to mother Adam—one bound by blood, the other by duty.
As nurse Lucy walks past concerned doctors, suffering patients, and stoic guards—her sweat speaking of hard work, patience, and resolve—and as Rebecca clings tightly to Adam, leaving no room for breath, care and love burst forth through the exquisite performances of Léa Drucker and Anamaria Vartolomei. This isn’t just acting. It’s sorcery. And what an incredible way to witness such a cinematic pinnacle.
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