Oedipal conflicts aside, our hero has legitimate reasons to hate him. Trent isn't an ogre, but he's far from Prince Charming. That's what makes "The Way, Way Back" feel somewhat special, even though you've seen its component parts before, and the parts don't always fit together naturally. He even dances, stiffly, and learns to be cool, if "cool" is a synonym for "not obviously miserable."Īs you may have guessed, all the triumphs in this film are relative to Duncan's starting place. He learns to have a semi-comfortable conversation with a lovely neighbor girl ( AnnaSophia Robb of "The Carrie Diaries"). He gets his first real job at a water park run by a talkative, funny, lovable flake named Owen ( Sam Rockwell). While vacationing at a beach house with his divorced mother, Pam ( Toni Collette), her quietly domineering new boyfriend Trent ( Steve Carell) and Trent's rhymes-with-witchy teenage daughter Steph (Zoe Levin), Duncan musters the courage to stand up for himself and his rather meek mom.
They do deft work navigating between the humor and the pain of relationships, slipping in substance where you least expect it."The Way, Way Back" is about The Summer that Changed Everything. Met at the Groundlings in 1999, knocked around as actors, seemingly came out of nowhere to win an Oscar in 2012 for their first screenplay, adapting “The Descendants” with director Alexander Payne. Meanwhile Faxon and Rash are one of those unlikely Hollywood success stories.
THE WAY WAY BACK CAST MOVIE
Rob Simonsen’s infectious original score, with Linda Cohen supervising, gives the movie that seductive summer-on-the-shore vibe that helps in riding out the storms. I’m guessing the top-notch crew, including veteran cinematographer John Bailey, production designer Mark Ricker, and costume designers Ann Roth and Michelle Matland, took on the project more for love than money. How Pam and Duncan eventually cross it comes as close as the movie ever gets to giving into a Hollywood moment. What he sees so clearly, and what she refuses to admit, becomes the dividing line that the film keeps working toward. Though Trent represents the torturer dealing out daily humiliations and Owen the savior, what really drives Duncan and the movie is his mother’s indecision. Rob Corddry and Amanda Peet play Kip and Joan, Trent’s best friends and complicating factors. Trent’s daughter, Steph (Zoe Levin), like most of the girls, is there to be beautiful, sullen and dismissive. Their awkward attempts at teasing is a lovely first flirt. Janney is a total gas in the role, playing Betty in tight pants and with nonstop patter that, like shots of tequila, is better in small doses.īetty’s daughter Susanna (AnnaSophia Robb) is one of the cool kids who begins to redefine Duncan’s life. All her insecurity is immediately embraced by Trent’s outrageously naughty narcissist next-door neighbor, Betty. Pam, barely a year past divorce and desperate to make a new family with Trent work, comes alive as Collette walks that wire. The difficult dynamics at Trent’s become apparent as soon as the car parks at the beach house, aptly named Riptide. Owen and the gang soon represent the family Duncan feels the divorce cost him. Faxon and Rash are Water Wizz characters, one’s eyeing bikini bods, the other escape. Comic Maya Rudolph’s Caitlyn is a nice aside as the one who loves Owen but with reservations. A meltdown over Candy Land is classic.Įven the small turns are not slighted. The core of the film rests in the contrast between Owen and Duncan’s who-you-really-are heart-to-hearts and the tension played out on the home front with Trent. A flunky job at Water Wizz will work wonders. In that punch-him-in-the-arm playground style of support, he tries to help the kid find himself and some self-esteem.
Rockwell, most acclaimed for his nearly silent tour de force a few years ago in “Moon,” is a comic revelation as the wisecracking good guy who takes Duncan, and other strays, under his wing. Owen (Rockwell) runs the place in the way of a cool dude forever giving into his inner Peter Pan. Kid paradise, or something close, is the Water Wizz Water Park, one of those local spots that give small-town life its charm. Trent’s out to squash any resistance to his plans to marry Pam.
THE WAY WAY BACK CAST FULL
Ground zero for conflict is Trent’s beach house on the Boston shore, where a full assault is underway. The movie itself will roll between two worlds. James, whom you may know from the AMC hit drama “The Killing,” is a standout. The crushed curl of Duncan’s shoulders, the headphones that can’t block out that voice, the hurt in his eyes capture how unprepared the boy is for Trent’s treatment.
When the 14-year-old finally ventures a “6,” Trent’s reaction reveals exactly what Duncan is up against.
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