The Way Way Back

THE WAY WAY BACK

Director : Nat Faxon and Jim Rash

Year : 2013

Genre : Comedy

Rating : **1/2

Telling a very simple coming of age story, 'The Way Way Back' is a colourful, if not rather forgettable piece of Summer confectionery from first time directors Nat Faxon and Jim Rash. Starring Steve Carrell, Toni Collette and Sam Rockwell, the movie focuses on the life of a 14 year old boy who finds love and friendship in a water park while on holiday. While it covers the basic tropes of an indie comedy of this type; the Summer romance, the difficult family situations and the central socially awkward protagonist, 'The Way Way Back' is elevated beyond it's conventions thanks to some great performances from it's cast and an optimistic tone. Unfortunately, the central character played by Liam James is something of a bore and this does make it difficult for us to feel empathy or develop any sense of feelings for him. But thankfully he is surrounded by great actors who manage to bring their A game to a film which really isn't anything special at all. It's fun, it's frothy, it's cute, but that is really all it is.

Liam James plays Duncan; a socially awkward teenager who finds himself on holiday with his loving mother (Collette), his domineering soon to be stepfather (Carrell) and his churlish soon to be stepsister; both of whom Duncan despises. Dragged along to Carell's beach home for a short vacation, he finds himself alone and without any form of acquaintance.  But when he discovers a small water park by the sea, Duncan suddenly finds a friend in the form of the park's enthusiastic and eccentric manager Owen (Rockwell), who takes a shine to his awkwardness and gullibility. With the help of his new friend and the rest of the centre's staff, Duncan begins to discover companionship, fun and love all in one place.

It is very clear from the beginning credits that 'The Way Way Back' is produced by the same studio who made both 'Little Miss Sunshine' and 'Juno'; it contains the same snappy, if not rather obnoxious dialogue style, a noodly meditative soundtrack and unbelievably caricatured archetypes. For some, these elements may be highly attractive and make a welcome change to the generic screenplays that are being churned out from Hollywood these days. However for me, the barely developed characters, the monotonous music and the obnoxious script does make this kind of indie movie teeth - grinding-ly irritating. Rather than being charming or kooky, the wit filled screenplay reeks of pretention and I must admit, it quickly wore me down. This surprised me because the directors Nat Faxon and Jim Rash both won Oscars for their brilliant screenplay for the otherwise ordinary 'The Descendants' and I thought that the dialogue style of 'The Way Way Back' would match that of the pair's award winning previous work. Sadly not.

Despite the under developed character types, most of the actors do a good job of making their over- exaggerated roles seem reasonably personable. Steve Carell is fine as the stereotypically domineering and untrustworthy boyfriend, whose life mission seems to be making Duncan's existence a misery. Bossy, shout-y and adulterous, Carell works well playing the main antagonist and it is nice to see him play a character type that is different to the bumbling, lovable oafs that we have come to expect from the talented comedic actor; although his meanness and malice doesn't really seem to come from any place in particular, making his outbursts seem random and rather useless to the thread of the narrative. 

Duncan himself is a very bland character and due to his lack of emotion or dialogue, I found it difficult to empathise with him in any way at all. Actor Liam James is probably best known as a TV actor and therefore I haven't seen much of his work due to my philistinism towards television. I am sure that 'The Way Way Back' will bring him bigger and juicier roles  in the future and I wish him the best of luck. However, I hope that he doesn't become typecast with the same neuroses and social awkwardness because I was becoming increasingly bored with his turgid performance and emotionless mannerisms. 

Much of the praise for 'The Way Way Back' has been attributed to Sam Rockwell's energetic and lively portrayal of the charming and adolescent - minded Owen and while his joke-y, wit filled characterization did annoy me frequently, Rockwell is extremely likable as it is obvious that the actor bought a lot of his own humour and personality to the role. However while Rockwell is good, the real star of the show is the brilliant Toni Collette, who steals the movie with her  heartbreakingly moving performance as Duncan's doting but downtrodden mother. Her fragile nature contrasts well with her blind optimism and these dichotomies create a very layered and involving character, much more interesting than any of the characters in 'The Way Way Back'. Sam Rockwell is entertaining, but Toni Collette is the real driving force of the film.

If you are a fan of the more offbeat and quirky comedy in the vein of 'Juno', then I can see no reason why you wouldn't enjoy 'The Way Way Back'. It's sweet natured, it's funny, it's well acted and is certainly one of the more optimistic films of the Summer. Personally, I am not a fan of the indie sensibility so it is clear that the movie wasn't made for me, but hey, what do I know? As coming of age movies go, it's not bad at all. I just like my comedy films to have more of a bite, rather than a hefty helping of bittersweet sentimentality and a strain of somewhat forced positivism.