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A sensitive teen does some growing up during summer season at a rundown amusement park. Comedy-drama starring Jesse Eisenberg and Kristen Stewart, and written and directed by Superbad's Greg Mottola
Superbad was an entertaining film. A little crude, a little crass and rather too in thrall to the spirit of Porky's perhaps, but it was touching enough to stand apart from the mass of modern teen movies. And in Greg Mottola, it had a director able to pick up the batton passed down by the Weitz brothers (American Pie) and fumbled by a legion of gross out-fixated filmmakers. A lot of people might assume Adventureland is cut from the same cloth as Superbad. Those audience members are going to be disappointed, however, for while it might feature a young man obsessed with hitting his best friend in the balls, Mottola's follow-up owes more to his quirky debut The Daytrippers and his understated TV work, principally 'Arrested Development'. In interviews, the writer-director has described his latest picture as his attempt to make a Woody Allen movie, which seems a strange thing to say given that Adventureland is warmer, more refreshing and far funnier than anything Mr Konigsberg has made since Soon-Yi came along. It's New York state, the 1980s, and James (Roger Dodger's Jesse Eisenberg) is having a rough trot. While his wealthy friends head off to Europe, Jim's relative poverty means he'll spend his pre-college period manning booths at his local theme park. Not that Adventureland is the Long Island equivalent of Disney World. A rundown establishment held together by the love of its husband-and-wife owners Bobby and Paulette (Bill Hader and Kristen Wiig), it's a dire place for a young person to be tied to. But it's here that James will gain the sort of experience he'd never have got from gallivanting courtesy of a host of notable customers and co-workers and an enigmatic young lady called Em (Kristen Stewart who's done a great job of growing up since 2002's Panic Room). Although it has its ribald moments and its belly-laughs, Adventureland has more in common with the polite comedy of Gregory's Girl than what currently passes for American teen cinema. Like Bill Forsyth before him, Mottola is quick to spot life's eccentricities (the obsession with giant pandas here mirroring the wandering penguin in Forsyth's adorable picture). Mottola's also keen to point out that, for all their failings, people are decent natured on the whole. Even James' love rival Brad (an awesome Ryan Reynolds - and, no, you're not alone in imagining those four words would never run into one another) is a good bloke having a hard time marrying his studly status with married life. Its gentle charm and effortless eloquence personified by its winning lead, Adventureland is only marred by a rote final reel. Rather than letting this grind, it's more satisfying to see Mottola's film as the cinematic equivalent of an Indian summer - a surprise as delightful as it is unexpected. And when the cliches are clutched for, you only need to think back a few minutes, to geek god Joel (Martin Starr) attributing his videogames strategy to the philosophies of Virgil or James singing the praises of Herman Melville, to find Adventureland's saving grace; a willingness to yearn for, rather than squirm about, one's teenage years. Verdict The feelgood hit of the late summer. |
