In this interesting drama based on a novel by Robert Cormier, flashbacks to two different periods of time mixed with scenes from the present slowly unveil the mysterious circumstances surrounding a lonely teen (Robert MacNaughton) who meets regularly with a psychiatrist delving into his past. The boy is in an institution and often rides around the grounds on his bicycle, pretending that the guards, groundskeepers, and personnel are his enemies. As the psychiatrist probes deeper, more of the boy's family's past comes to light. His father (Don Murray) had been a successful journalist until he testified in a criminal court case that made him a target of assassins -- and so he faked his death in an accident, changed his name, and moved out to Vermont. He never told his son who he was, and when he and his wife (Hope Lange) are killed one day in an "accident" the boy sees it and goes into shock. Now as he continues in his treatments at the institution, he begins to suspect that his psychiatrist and the institution's staff are, in fact, his father's enemies and orchestrated the assassination of his parents.

m the Cheese is a crime novel by the American writer Robert Cormier, published in American and British hardcover and paperback editions all during 1977. In the U.S. Knopf published the hardcover under its Pantheon imprint and Dell the softcover under Laurel Leaf, its mass-market paperback imprint for teens. Its Library of Congress Subject Headings are intelligence service fiction and organized crime fiction.[1]

In this adaptation of Robert Cormier's novel, 14-year-old Adam Farmer (Robert MacNaughton) seeks to unearth the many secrets locked in his subconscious. Adam's journey through his mind is paralleled with a bike trip to Rutterburg, Vermont, with a package for his father. As he travels through several small towns, he starts to remember past events from his life.

Adam's trip is prompted by a call from his girlfriend, Amy (Cynthia Nixon), who says her father met a reporter from Adam's alleged hometown of Rawlings, Pennsylvania, and the reporter had never heard of anyone named Farmer living there. Suspicious, Adam begins spying on his parents and finds two birth certificates with his name on them, but with different birthdates - Feb. 14 (Valentine's Day) and July 14 (Bastille Day). Adam confronts his father, who admits some shocking truths.

Adam's real name is Paul Delmonte and the family was forced to relocate in a Witness Protection-type program after his father testified in state and federal trials against corrupt government officials. In reality, Adam is not biking to Vermont; he is riding in circles around the psychiatric facility where he has been held for the past three years, and the people he meets along the way are patients and workers at the facility. His "journey" is a quest to discover the whereabouts of his parents, who mysteriously disappeared (in truth, they were "terminated" by the adversaries they sought to elude). The memories Adam recounts are documented in "psychiatric sessions," which are, in fact, interviews to determine whether or not he knows more about his father's involvement with the government than he's telling. Adam's final interview ends with two possible outcomes, neither of which bode well for the boy: "Terminating" him or continuing to question him until he dies.

Release Date: November 11, 1983

Distrib: Almi Pictures