The Way Way Back is centered around fourteen year old Duncan, played by Liam James who is going to his mother boyfriend's Trent, played by Steve Carell, beach house for the summer. With his is his mother Pam, played by Toni Collette, and Trent's daughter. Duncan has a poor relationship with Trent and this is identified at the beginning of the movie when Trent asks Duncan to rate his life on a scale of 1-10 and then rates him a 3. Trent is controlling and a huge A-hole to Duncan but due to being there with his mom Duncan has to put up with it. During this summer he meets the owner of a local waterpark Owen, played by Sam Rockwell, and start to grow as a person and discover who he is. It is basically the beginning of a coming of age story for Duncan with him trying to deal with situations that he did not choose to put himself in while trying to make it work.
For me, this movie takes a while to get going and some of the story line seems a bit over awkward. I know that awkward was the point of this, as it has the indie drama feel to it but for me Steve Carell had difficulty with the A-hole feel. This may be because he always tends to play things more comedy or dark comedy and this character didn't really have any lovable parts to it and I had difficulty seeing him embody the character. I also thought the chemistry between him and Toni Collette could have been better as they are suppose to be boyfriend and girlfriend and I would have liked it if there was a bit more between them. That being said, I think the rest of the cast was fantastic and great in their roles.
The best part of the entire movie for me was Sam Rockwell as Owen. I think he had the right mix of fun, sass, and supporter to Duncan. Whenever he was on screen, especially when interacting with Duncan it was great. The movie really picked up with my interest and enjoyment when he was truly introduced into the story. There was a great supporting cast with Allison Janney as Betty, the drunk next door neighbor; AnnaSophia Robb as Suzanna, the teenage girl next door who is also struggling with being a teenager and her relationship with her family; Maya Rudolph, Nat Faxon, and Jim Rash as other waterpark employees; Rob Corddry, who I just love in basically everything he does, as Kip.
This movie is very much the Indie Drama and is just showing a snapshot of this boys life and the people he meet. There is some growth that he goes through but as with movie of this sort, it is just about this specific time and place in life and how it is for them to be there. I would recommend this movie to anyone who likes or sometimes enjoys this type of movie, because this was a very good version.
My Rating: 3
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