Slightly based on the life (and death) of Mary Meyer, An American Affair is a rather enjoyable drama in which a young boy almost winds up as The Boy Who Knew Too Much. Young Adam (Cameron Bright) is your average Catholic school 
American youth who enjoys being a prick to his schoolmates, gluing his teeth back in when they get punched out on the playground, and wanking off to his dad’s Playboys. Adam lives with his folks (Noah Wyle and Perrey Reeves) in their Washington D.C. home. One night, the lad catches a glimpse of a bare-chested sexpot across the street named Catherine Caswell (Gretchen Mol), and instantly falls in love with her. Convincing her to hire him for yard work, the artist Catherine in-turn teaches Adam a few aspects about free-spiritedness, and how to look at life in a different light.
Unfortunately, things aren’t a matter of black-and-white in a place like Washington D.C. — and between Catherine’s “friendship” with President John F. Kennedy and the amount of shady men in suits lingering about, Adam is about to find himself an unwanted party to a major conspiracy. James Rebhorn and Mark Pellegrino co-star as some of the shady D.C. characters.
Screen Media brings us An American Affair on DVD in a bright and decent anamorphic widescreen 
transfer. The quality here is about as good as it can get for Standard Definition, and the autumn leaves of Baltimore (where the movie was filmed) are quite colorful. The English 5.1 soundtrack (the only one to be found on this release) comes through fine with no blemishes, although, as usual, there isn’t a whole lot of action going on for the rear speakers to get a workout. Optional Spanish subtitles are included and the disc in Closed Captioned.
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