If you’re over the age of 20, you’re gonna want to put on your humility hat for The Way, Way Back – because wow, adults can really suck sometimes.
Though, if you’ve never given a 14-year-old a personality rating out of 10, you’re at least off to a better start than Trent (Steve Carell) – our mousy protagonist Duncan’s mother (Toni Collette)’s pushy boyfriend.
In the opening scene Duncan finds himself roped into joining Trent and his mum for a summer holiday at Trent’s beach house. In the way, way back of the offending boyfriend’s station wagon he’s asked what he’d rank himself personality wise on a scale of one to ten. An embarrassed Duncan says he’s about a six, Trent reckons he’s a three. Not a confidence booster.
Unfortunately Trent doesn’t experience the personality growth that he’s hoping lies in Duncan’s future. But the teenage characters oil up the creaky coming of age story into something equal parts refreshing and familiar; the just-poured Pimm’s cup of film.
Actors AnnaSophia Robb and Liam James are so charming you barely consider the unlikelihood of the older girl going for the younger guy “in all his awkward glory”, and the adults’ hateability is testament to some pretty stellar acting. Collette’s in our good books even when she’s playing bad – which she does here by being too nice.
The other standout performance comes from Sam Rockwell (Confessions of a Dangerous Mind, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy) as cocky yet charming Owen, a water park employee who becomes Duncan’s mentor. He’s everything Trent’s not, he’s just the insouciant confident Duncan needs, and he’s the guy you’d find yourself unwittingly charmed by if you somehow wound up at a water park on the coast of Massachusetts.
With its peppery blend of comedy, drama and nostalgia, The Way, Way Back is the perfect antidote to a chilly Southern Hemisphere winter. Escapism at its feel-good finest.
The Way, Way Back
In Cinemas 1 August 2013
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