Movie Review: The Way, Way Back

Big Love

Drama/Comedy. M

What’s It All About? During one summer an awkward teen finds his groove and acceptance in an unexpected place - a water fun park.

The Verdict: A feel-good coming of age film with a lot of heart, one that pulls fewer punches than you might expect.

4.0/5.0

Imagine the ignominy of sitting like an outsider, back to everyone else in the bench seat of a Griswold era wood-panelled station wagon. You’re already dreading your way to a blended family vacation when your tosser Stepdad wannabe patronisingly rates you as a person with a withering three... out of ten.

We're going to need a bigger boat.....

Not a great start to the summer for a withdrawn teenage boy. But with the bitterness, things are going to get sweeter for young Duncan (Liam James, 2012) once he, his trodden-upon mum Pam (Toni Collette), said stepfather-in-waiting Trent (Steve Carrell) and his spoilt brat daughter Steph (Zoe Levin, Trust)  settle in to holiday in an east coast US hamlet.

"It's a film with a lot of wit, humour, heart and nostalgia."

For the adults, it’s time to kick the heels up, drink, smoke and be merry while the kids make their own fun – “This place is like spring break for grownups,” Duncan’s love interest Susanna (AnnaSophia Robb, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory) tells him. Her mother played by the scene-stealing Allison Janney (The West Wing) is at the steep end of the mildly debaucherous mood as a gregarious, boozy whirling dervish.

Hold me now.... Whoa whoa

With Duncan’s mother all too wrapped up in her relationship with the tactless, arrogant Trent and with Trent riding him like Flipper, Duncan finds solace and acceptance in an unlikely place, the aptly named local water park Water Wizz. Slacker manager Owen (a wonderfully charismatic Sam Rockwell, Iron Man 2) – a mix of manic man-child, generous spirit and aspiring comic – in his quirky way takes Duncan under his wing unconditionally, giving him a much needed distraction in a summer job. Owen becomes the friend, brother and even paternal figure Duncan’s sorely been missing.

It might sound all a bit too schmaltzy but while this is definitely a sentimental film, it also tells it how it is, pulling few punches when it comes to family dynamics – the dysfunctional and those not of blood ties. And it does so with a lot of wit, humour, heart and nostalgia.

Who's your daddy?

The story is based on the summer childhood experiences of writer/director team Nat Faxon and Jim Rash - both well known comedy actors who appear in the film and who, with director Alexander Payne wrote the Oscar winning screenplay for The Descendents - when the adults were a distant presence and the kids frequented a “chlorine, urine infested paradise” (as they put it in the press notes) and made the best of awkwardly blended families. The film’s deflating ‘3/10 scene’ comes direct from Rash’s childhood. The pair were influenced by Little Miss Sunshine and Juno so that gives you a semblance of the comedy-drama mix.

Co-writer/director Nat Faxon makes a splash.

Despite the big ticket reuniting of Sunshine stars Collette (whose Pam is one of her least rounded characters) and Carrell (who effectively plays against type as the ultimate irritant), it’s not the rapprochement between mother and son that ultimately resonates but the joyfully comical, poignant and unconventional friendship between man-child and awkward teen. Liam James and Sam Rockwell have a terrific rapport. This is their film.