Review: The Way Way Back

Nerdy, introverted 14 year-old Liam James is on vacation with his mother (Toni Collette) and her arrogant douchebag boyfriend (Steve Carell), and it looks like it’s going to be a hellish time at Carell’s beach home. That’s until James ventures to the local water park and meets owner Sam Rockwell, who gives him a summer job, and kinda mentors the kid, though mostly just trying to get the sullen teen to break out of his shell and have some damn fun. He also strikes up a relationship with AnnaSophia Robb, the teen daughter of trashy divorcee neighbour Alison Janney. Meanwhile, Amanda Peet and Rob Corddry play acquaintances, the former of whom Carell has a wandering eye for. A pregnant Maya Rudolph plays a water park employee, alongside a depressed Jim Rash and laidback Nat Faxon.

 

Take a little bit of “Meatballs”, add a dash of “The Descendants”, and a sprinkling of “Little Miss Sunshine”, and you get this disappointingly clichéd, derivative film from writer-director Jim Rash. I had heard good things about the film, but aside from terrific performances by Sam Rockwell and Alison Janney, this is all pretty ‘meh’.

 

Toni Collette is especially disappointing in a frankly nothing role that is borderline invisible when not somewhat unsympathetic, and Steve Carell playing Greg Kinnear in “Little Miss Sunshine” just goes to show how well-cast he and Kinnear were in that film. In this role he’s not miscast, he’s just not particularly interesting. I did, however like his character calling Liam James a ‘3’. I mean, it’s easy to be a prick and call him a zero, but the fact that he chose the number 3 shows that he actually put some thought into it and is an even bigger prick for it. I mean, that’s just bloody cruel.

 

Worst of all, though is lead actor Liam James in a singularly uninteresting performance in a crucial role. The dorkiness and sullenness are overdone to an unappealing degree. He’s such a drip that he doesn’t notice that the lovely AnnaSophia Robb (who can be quite pretty when not miscast as the younger Sarah Jessica Parker on TV. Seriously, their faces are the exact opposite of one another) clearly wants to get with him. He’s rather pathetic, a bit too put-upon socially awkward to believe, and uncomfortable to watch. Whilst I loathed Carell’s treatment of him, and no kid deserves to feel like nothing, there is absolutely nothing in James’ performance or character to really make you care about him. Other people treating him poorly isn’t enough.

 

Although Alison Janney pretty much plays the same character on TV now, she’s instantly hilarious and trashy here. I personally don’t think the kid is worth a damn, but nonetheless Sam Rockwell is typically fun here as James’ employer and pretty much lone friend. Actually, all the other borderline depressed pool employees (including those played by the writers themselves) are amusing too, in a film that desperately needs the humour.

 

Writers Rash and Nat Faxon have improved slightly on the overrated “The Descendants” with this film, but they owe almost all the credit to the performances by Alison Janney and Sam Rockwell. Otherwise, this is pretty underwhelming and tired. And sorry guys, but that final scene doesn’t redeem the frankly unlikeable Collette character at all. I understand what was going on there, but it’s never right to behave the way she does, true to life or not.

 

Rating: C+