Way, Way Too Sentimental

Movies: The Way, Way Back

Man, you guys. I feel totally heartless, but Nat Faxon and Jim Rash's coming of age story The Way, Way Back, really left me cold. Not cold. Lukewarm. Faxon and Rash teamed up a couple years ago to write the screenplay for The Descendants--another film I thought I would like more than I actually did. But where The Descendants had the benefit of being co-written and directed by Alexander Payne, who excels at bringing out the edge and bite in films, The Way, Way Back is toothless.

The story revolves around 14 year old Duncan (Liam James), who is stuck in a beach house all summer with his mom (Toni Collette), his mom's jerk of a boyfriend (Steve Carell, going delightfully against type), and the boyfriend's bitchy daughter. With his mom too caught up in post-divorce love to pay much attention to him, Duncan is clearly in need of some adult mentoring and kindness. He is offered a job at a local water park--Water Wizz--by Owen (Sam Rockwell), a slightly immature, yet caring father figure. Owen and the other workers at Water Wizz manage to bring Duncan out of his shell and end up giving him the confidence he can't find in his own family unit.


Although the film was ripe with potential--especially with Steve Carell and Sam Rockwell playing such interesting characters--The Way, Way Back was, for me, a gooey, sticky bore. There was a distinct lack of true emotion, even in the most emotional scenes (such as when Duncan confronts his mom about what a bully Trent (the BF) is). And some of the supporting characters--Allison Janey as the alcoholic sister of Trent and Jim Rash as a bespectacled dork who works at the water park--seem to have escaped from bad sitcoms or the set of Napoleon Dynamite. There's a lot of quirky for the sake of quirky in this movie--a trait I strongly dislike in movies--and it's not even interesting quirky. It's boring quirky. Is that even a thing?!

I generally love coming of age stories. And they most certainly can be sweet and earnest and still work (see my review of The Perks of Being a Wallflower). But The Way, Way Back wasn't sweet in a natural, honest way. It was like a packet of Splenda.

2.5 out of 5 stars