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Coming-of-age comedy drama that's hardly original and like the central character takes a while to get into any groove and find its own voice.
Liam James is decent enough as the central character, Duncan, feeling alienated from his own parents as they both concentrate more on their new relationships and from society in general as a result of being the product of a broken marriage. Sam Rockwell does well enough playing the pivotal role which allows Duncan the wherewithal to grow but some of the situations that foment that growth are rather forced and not only is Rockwell's character's own need for growth rather clichéd and yawnsome it also makes his mentoring young Duncan less believable. Just about every other character was one-dimensional.
The humour is generally pretty unsophisticated but it has to be said that some of it does work reasonably well and the soundtrack is nicely selected and compliments well imo. That it all builds to a somewhat twee conclusion is only to be expected and in the film's favour it at least has the nous to keep it relatively concise and not go over the top.
The Way Way Back seems to be fairly well thought of judging from IMDb (a rating of 7+ from 130k+ votes at time of writing) but it's a little too brash in places for my taste, lacks any real originality and doesn't really have that much heart so sadly I can only give it a
The Way Way Back
Nat Faxon & Jim Rash
2013
Nat Faxon & Jim Rash
2013
Coming-of-age comedy drama that's hardly original and like the central character takes a while to get into any groove and find its own voice.
Liam James is decent enough as the central character, Duncan, feeling alienated from his own parents as they both concentrate more on their new relationships and from society in general as a result of being the product of a broken marriage. Sam Rockwell does well enough playing the pivotal role which allows Duncan the wherewithal to grow but some of the situations that foment that growth are rather forced and not only is Rockwell's character's own need for growth rather clichéd and yawnsome it also makes his mentoring young Duncan less believable. Just about every other character was one-dimensional.
The humour is generally pretty unsophisticated but it has to be said that some of it does work reasonably well and the soundtrack is nicely selected and compliments well imo. That it all builds to a somewhat twee conclusion is only to be expected and in the film's favour it at least has the nous to keep it relatively concise and not go over the top.
The Way Way Back seems to be fairly well thought of judging from IMDb (a rating of 7+ from 130k+ votes at time of writing) but it's a little too brash in places for my taste, lacks any real originality and doesn't really have that much heart so sadly I can only give it a