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YOUNG ADAM Under the auspices of writer-director David Mackenzie, this adaptation of Alexander Trocchi's novel feels like Roman Polanski's Knife In the Water as told by Ken Loach or Lynne Ramsay, a grubby tale of working-class disillusionment enacted by the three empty souls aboard a cramped sea vessel. Joe (Ewan McGregor) is the young drifter who takes a job aboard the barge owned by Les (Peter Mullan) and Ella (Tilda Swinton); when he isn't busy bonking the haggardly Ella behind her impotent husband's back (the sight of McGregor's fleshy lightsaber earned this an NC-17), he's reflecting on the death (murder? suicide? accident?) of his former flame (Emily Mortimer). The movie's bleak outlook is gripping to a point, but it never amounts to much more than surface grot. 1/2