Film Friday: The Way Way Back

Fourteen sucks.

Especially if your mom is dating an asshole.  And your dad's got a new girlfriend on the other coast.

That's the situation for Duncan (Liam James), who's going to be spending the summer at the beach home of aforementioned asshole Trent (Steve Carrell) and his daughter Stephanie (Zoe Levin), as mom (Toni Collette) tries hard to make this situation work well.

But Duncan realizes that he's clearly an afterthought among all the people his mom begins to associate with: off-the-wagon neighbor Betty (Allison Janney) and friends Kip and Joan (Rob Corddry and Amanda Peet).   They drink, party, and when Betty's oldest son scores, they smoke pot.  "It's like spring break for grownups," quips Betty's lovely teen daughter Susanna (AnnaSophia Robb).  Duncan finds an old pink bike in the garage and begins to ride around the beach town, where he happens to make friends with Owen (Sam Rockwell), who is the manager of the Water Wizz water park.  And it is when Duncan secretly begins working at the park that he finally finds himself.

Nat Faxon and Jim Rash, who co-wrote the script, co-directed, and play minor but funny parts, have created a very charming anti-Beach movie, one that uses many silly references to eighties culture (almost as many as The Wedding Singer, which of course was set in 1985).  Rockwell's Owen is the wisecracking father figure Duncan needs, the right guy at the right time.  Of course, he's just as much an overgrown child as the adults back at the beach houses, as his girlfriend and fellow manager Caitlyn (Maya Rudolph, who doesn't make crappy movies, does she) points out to him after one near-crisis is averted.  But his status as a "guy" gives him the perspective Duncan craves; the other adults in Duncan's life seek to forget that they are grown-up.  This is especially the case with Trent; he tells Duncan that "there has to be trust and respect" in order for this potential blended family to work, but he deserves neither, and Duncan knows it.   When he confronts his mother and Trent with what he knows, it forces all the adults to make some tough, adult decisions.  (Mom makes a nice one, eventually, at the very end, not a melodramatic one, but one that makes you have hope as the credits come up.)

The script is generally clever and not cloying; the opening conversation with Trent and Duncan, where he tells the kid, "I think you're a 3," was based on a real conversation Rash had with his stepfather, and it feels about right.  Rockwell clearly is enjoying himself as the snarky wise one, and he has the best lines.  Of course the film gives us the usual boys-will-be-boys shenanigans, and some scenes at the park feel quite frankly not unlike the ones you could watch from those old sixties Beach movies.  The Way Way Back is not the innocent summer love of Wes Anderson's Moonrise Kingdom, nor is it as self-consciously a fairy tale like Anderson's film was. (It's also not as meticulously composed, either.)  Nor is it really a coming-of-age film, though it has some elements of it.  It's really a snapshot, showing a young man seeking happiness and overcoming his -- and his mom's -- fears.  Maybe he'll get through fourteen and it won't suck as much.