Review: The Way Way Back

Review: The Way Way Back
*Spoilers Alert
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Official 'The Way Way Back' Poster.

      Capitalizing on its talented cast, its unusually deep script and its natural fun, 'The Way Way Back' is one of the breakout movies of the year that surprised everyone by its authentic charm.

"Toni Collette" and "Steve Carell".

"Liam James".

      14 year old 'Duncan'(Liam James) reluctantly goes with his mother 'Pam'(Toni Collette), her new boyfriend 'Trent'(Steve Carell), and 'Trent''s obnoxious daughter 'Steph'(Zoe Levin) to spend the summer at 'Trent''s beach house in a small seaside town in Cape Cod. One day, while trying to flee 'Trent', who treats him very badly, and the boredom at the beach house, he finds himself on his bike heading towards a local water park called 'Wizz Park'. There he meets 'Owen'(Sam Rockwell) the lazy manager of the water park. What 'Duncan' doesn’t know that he is about to take the ride of his life, which will take him on a journey that, every one of us has taken before: growing up! Other characters include 'Betty'(Allison Janney) 'Trent''s hard drinking neighbor, her daughter 'Susanna'(AnnaSophia Bush) and her son 'Peter'(River Alexander). We also have the park's employees: 'Caitlyn'(Maya Rudolph), 'Lewis'(Jim Rash), and 'Roddy'(Nat Faxon). 'Trent''s friends include 'Kip'(Rob Corddry) and 'Joan'(Amanda Peet).

"Allison Janney".

"Sam Rockwell".

      The same type of comedy-drama movies, that usually have a limited release early on and then expand with time, don't have a guarantee that they will succeed, whether we are talking box office or critics. However, the marketing department at Fox did a very nice job highlighting the good and attractive aspects of the movie, which are definitely the cast and a few great comedic lines. And that is the reason why the people went to watch the movie. To speak in general, everything fell in the right places that allowed the movie to be one of the enjoyable comedy-drama movies that as usual have its fair share of flaws. It was a good crowd pleasing summer movie that people could enjoy and that differs from watching the usual blockbuster movies.

"Liam James" and
"AnnaSophia Bush".

"Maya Rudolph".

      The movie had two directors: "Nat Faxon" and "Jim Rash", who are both known for co-writing and wining an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay for the 'The Descendants' in 2011. Being their directorial debut, I was genuinely impressed by the sleek job that they have done. The critics at the Sundance Film Festival were very impressed by the job that they have done, considering that they had no real experience in directing. Though the transition from one scene to another could have been better, their directing style is clean and respectful to both the environment and the script. "Nat" and "Rash" also wrote the screenplay. The only issue that many had was that the themes were familiar; however, the way it was treated was what differentiated it from similar movies. Composer "Rob Simonsen"('The English Teacher' and '500 Days of summer') did the job of helping elevate the quality of the movie.

"Liam James" and "Sam Rockwell".

"Toni Collette", "Steve Carell", and
"Allison Janney".

       The pace of the movie is really good and allowed the movie to develop in a very good way, which allowed each scene to have its time to breath. The transition from one scene to another was ok, but could have been better. The opening scene was a very clever one and its link to the end scene was really good. Both scenes were probably my best scenes of the movie. What I liked about this movie was that each scene seemed important for the overall development of the scene, which is great since in these movies genre many useless scenes are included that make the audience bored. I would have liked for more detailed scenes that showed the growth of the relationship between 'Duncan' and 'Owen'.

"Rob Corddry", "Amanda Peet",
"Liam James", "Toni Collette", and
"Steve Carell".

"Liam James" and
 "AnnaSophia Bush".

      The thing that grabbed the attention of the audience was definitely the big talented cast. Let's start with "Liam James"('2012') had his first big break in this movie. And for the most part he delivered. He was able to stay on par with the more experienced actors, which was good. That said, I think he has more potential that will be surely unveiled in future movies. It was nice to see "Steve Carell" in a different role than his usual, in which he was very much convincing. The negative chemistry between him and "Liam James" was one of the good things. "Sam Rockwell" delivered one of his best performances of his career in my opinion. Same things go for "Toni Collette", who did a great job. Many, including me, expected a bigger role for both "AnnaSophia Robb" and “Maya Rudolph", while "Allison Janney" had the best comedic lines after "Rockwell". "Rob Corddry" and "Amanda Peet"'s roles unfortunately had very limited screen time. As for the remaining cast, they delivered solid performances to help the movie.

      'The Way Way Back' may not be a 'world changing' movie, yet it’s one of the surprise and crowd pleasing movies of 2013 and a great movie to watch and relax from the big budget movies.

      

'The Way Way Back'.

-'The Way Way Back' Info:
-Starring: Steve Carell, Toni Collette, Allison Janney, AnnaSophia Robb, Sam Rockwell, Maya Rudolph, Liam James, River Alexander, Zoe Levin, Jim Rash, Nat Faxon, Rob Corddry, and Amanda Peet.
-Studio(s): Fox Searchlight Pictures and OddLot Entertainment.
-Directed by: Nat Faxon and Jim Rash.
-Written by: Nat Faxon and Jim Rash.
-Music by: Rob Simonsen.
-Running Time: 103 minutes.
-Budget: $ 4,600,000.
-Box Office: -Domestic(US): $ 21,502,690.
                       -Foreign: $ 1,692,106.
-Rating: -IMdb: 7.6/10.
                -Rotten Tomatoes: 85%.
                -Metacritic: 66%.
   
                -PERSONAL RATING: 7.8/10.

-"The Way Way Back" Trailer: