Driver picks the music, shotgun shuts his cakehole
The problem with this film was not that it was bad but that it could have been great.Adventureland is about the downtrodden. The hopeless, the helpless and the lost ones. The lost youth that fall between the graceless period of post adolescence yet prior to real adulthood. It’s about those who get stuck and don’t always have an escape route planned. Adventureland is also about a boy, who meets a girl and all that that entails. It’s a coming of age movie that was good, but really should have been great.
Jesse Eisenberg has found a niche of character that he portrays well. The beaten down yet determined, the socially awkward yet charming, the intelligent young man who has had some unfortunate experience happen to him and yet still tries to find a solution to said problem. He is a the “lovable nerd”, yet his acting abilities help further the otherwise one note, tired and cliché character that we as audiences have come to recognize. Eisenberg has real talent and real charisma. I wish we were being allowed to see it more i.e. The Squid and the Whale and The Social Network.
Kristen Stewart plays the love interest, conveying more emotion here than in Twilight, yet not realizing the genuine talent she showcased in the little seen film The Cake Eaters. Ryan Reynolds seems oddly miscast, with his typical use of dry, sarcastic humor falling flat. Kristen Wiig and Bill Hader are surprise scene stealers as the duo who run the park.
This film touches upon relatable topics to all of whom are in the process of transitioning from one era to the next. It addresses the vulnerability and the fear yet it only ever skims the surface. Instead of delving straight into the problems that these characters really had, and highlighting their flaws they simply hinted and whispered. The movie had a relatable story, yet the characters were not. I want to watch a film and relate whether or not the characters are animated, magical, green and twenty feet tall, or completely unstable, if a character who is going through situations that I will soon be facing, and still doesn’t relate, there is a problem.
The problem with this film was not that it was bad but that it could have been great.
