I hold this truth to be self-evi dent: It is very difficult to accurately re-create the world of our founding fathers on film.
Tom Hanks can’t even do it and he’s Tom Hanks. It’s his production company, Playtone, that has produced HBO’s seven-part adaptation of historian David McCullough’s biography of John Adams, first vice president of the United States and second president.
One of the best-educated Americans of his time, Adams is considered the driving force behind the Declaration of Independence, the man most responsible for persuading members of the Continental Congress in summer 1776 to draft the document. He then helped Thomas Jefferson write it.
He did a lot of other things too – enough to fill a book, which McCullough already did to the delight of millions. The life story the book describes is so rich that a miniseries would have to be 20 hours longer than this one’s seven-plus hours to do the story justice.
Having said that, there remain several very good reasons to watch “John Adams” – the performances, particularly Paul Giamatti as Adams and Laura Linney as his wife, Abigail.
Giamatti is so thoroughly committed to the role that you eventually forget it’s him. In a not altogether flattering portrayal, Giamatti emphasizes Adams’ insecurities, his stubbornness and his toughness as a father.
However, when he triumphs at the Continental Congress or overcomes his nervousness at his first meeting with the imperious King George III (after Adams is appointed ambassador to Great Britain), you can’t help rooting for him.
To give this miniseries its due, some worthy effort has been expended to depict the period in which the Adams story takes place. For example, in the absence of air conditioning, men sweat uncomfortably, diseases run rampant and the buzzing of unseen flies is audible in many hot-weather scenes.
However, as is often the case in films like these, speech-making that is meant to thrill instead comes out sounding stilted – like actors playing statesmen.
In addition, the flattened prosthetic nose worn by David Morse in the role of George Washington is so distracting that you can barely concentrate on the other participants in the scenes in which he appears.
Though the miniseries represents a compressed and not entirely accurate history, it is moving enough to remind us of the sacrifices made by Adams and a great many other people to form a republic against almost impossible odds.
“John Adams”
Sunday night at 9 on HBO