Next up in the recent slew
of youth pictures is The Way, Way Back — Jim Rash and Nat Faxon’s
coming-of-age, summer-vacation comedy.
The movie certainly emanates a pleasantly breezy atmosphere, but with
satirical firebombs The Bling Ring
and Spring Breakers fresh in the
memory, it feels as tepid as a community swimming pool. It’s content to follow John Hughes’
smarmy-melodramatic instruction manual while its genre cousins are giving the
term “rebel without a cause” new diabolical definitions.
Duncan (Liam James) is a
geeky and insecure fourteen-year-old, who's forced to spend the summer at a beach
house with his mom and her vitriolic boyfriend Trent (Steve Carell). Duncan already feels like a cipher, and
Trent exacerbates his self-doubt with barrages of sardonic mockery. Carell makes for a predictably delicious
scoundrel, but his character is more walking douche-bag than human being. Toni Collette fares better as Duncan’s
conflicted mother who struggles to decide where her loyalties should lie.
Soon after arriving at the
shore, Duncan meets the cutie next door, Suzanna (Anna-Sophia Robb). Like Duncan, she comes from a broken
home and finds in her goofy new neighbor a kindred spirit. The screenplay eventually works in a
contrived romantic element that it neglects to fully explore. Furthermore, even though Robb makes a
fetching coed, I seriously doubt a beautiful upperclassman would be interested
in an awkward freshman like Duncan.
Besides, The Way, Way Back is less summer romance
than summer bromance. Duncan stumbles upon a local water park
and befriends Owen (Sam Rockwell) — its smooth-talking owner. A profoundly underrated actor, Rockwell
plays Owen as a good-hearted wisecracker, and his relationship with Duncan works
beautifully because he is the exact opposite of Trent. Due to his compassion and immaturity,
Owen can be both supportive father figure and mischievous peer.
Ultimately, The Way, Way Back offers few surprises. As one might expect, Duncan departs in August far more comfortable in his own skin. Yet with an impressive ensemble — including scene-stealers Maya Rudolph, Allison Janney, and Jim Rash — the film makes a resoundingly successful crowd-pleaser. Even if it’s hardly brainy enough to compare to contemporaneous youth pictures, this charming getaway at least fills its empty head with warm summer air.
