The Way, Way Back is yet another coming-of-age story, this time about a fourteen year old who is dragged to his mum’s boyfriend’s beach house for some Summer family bonding. Stuck in his socially awkward skin and rejected by his (fairly stereotypically) bitchy step-sister (Zoe Levin), Duncan (Liam James) goes off in search of something to do and finds himself in a water park run by the always brilliant Sam Rockwell. As he begins to find himself, he pulls further away from his mother (Toni Collette) and her bullying boyfriend (Steve Carell) with his snide remarks. The film does a brilliant job of dividing his family life and self discovery; the only trouble is his family life is so mundane it makes the film quite boring.
The half of the film that features Sam Rockwell quoting Bonnie Tyler and some water park fun is great and is the part when the film really picks up. These scenes, also featuring Maya Rudolph, are brilliant fun and highlight just how dull Duncan’s family life is, and how massively Trent (Carell) sucks. The only problem is, it does it too well. Whilst the point is to divide the film, the family scenes become so boring that all of a sudden the film isn’t as enjoyable as it was. It’s very hard to care about characters when every scene they’re in is boring or annoying or just downright rubbish, and sadly that’s the case with Duncan’s family. They’ve got a bunch of brilliant actors in and given them such boring or painfully horrible characters that instead of illustrating the point of the film, they just become very difficult to care about. Even Duncan’s mother suffers, although she does redeem herself in the final moments of the film, but by then it’s a little too late.
On the other hand, the scenes at the water park with Sam Rockwell are brilliant. He shines as the fairly immature but well meaning owner of Water Whizz and has the majority of the best lines in the film. Here Duncan begins to discover who he is and who he could be, and whilst a few of the scenes are very cliched (including one breakdancing scene), they’re still enjoyable and there are a few moments that will bring a genuine smile to your face. The chemistry between Caitlin (Rudolph) and Owen (Rockwell) is great to watch as well, and with the other characters who appear at the park, these scenes are a welcome relief from the rest of the film.
Sam Rockwell and Liam James are the main reasons for going to see The Way, Way Back. Both are excellent and their shared scenes are a joy to watch. And whilst Toni Collette and Allison Janney are both equally brilliant, their scenes are so mindnumbingly boring that they fade into the background. It’s all very well trying to illustrate a point, but with a film like this it’s such a shame when it becomes hard to enjoy, because this should have been, and has the potential to be, a really brilliant film.
The Way, Way Back is in cinemas 28th August 2013.
Directors: Nat Faxon, Jim Rash
Writers: Nat Faxon, Jim Rash
Stars: Steve Carell, Toni Collette, Allison Janney
Runtime: 103 mins
Country: USA
Film Rating: 
