"Adventureland" (2009) - Movie Review

“Adventureland” is not the comedy I was expecting from the “Superbad” director Greg Mottola. It has more serious story than the advertisement projects. It happens in 1987 though the colours and disco are the significant props we would be noticing of but it becomes a theme too in a very good way. It follows two characters tied in the fate the parents have generated and fall in love without the whole hunt and ritual of virgin deflowering. The simplest drama comedy is the best thing one could ask for and “Adventureland” is one such done in a very beloved manner.

The seasonal fair as the name implies brings in a seasonal elevation of happiness during the course of time we surf through it. Because every one knows why they are here. To have fun. Bars, clubs might get people to have fun but there are way too many purpose to the visit. Get girls, get guys, wipe their sorrow and may be a little too happy to spoil the scene. Theme park is a different thing. Family brings immediate safety and there is a lot of budding innocence around. The purpose of fun is very clear that the people are levitated in it. But if you are stuck in that environment day after day and worst, work there, how will it be? Suffocating. James (Jesse Eisenberg) has no other choice to do a summer job as his dad gets some career setbacks. This cancels his Europe trip and hopes to get this done fast so that he can pursue his literary academic in New York with his best friend from school.

He begins the job he is already hating and finds that there is a reason to go. Fellow worker Em (Kristen Stewart) begins to talk to him and thus as the desperate guy, hopes to get somewhere with her. Em is an angry girl and unable to stand the societal obligations her new step mother puts through and the father going along with it. She vents out that through falling into the arms of a much older and a married guy Connell (Ryan Reynolds). Connell is the maintenance personnel of the theme park and is the big brother and coolest dude to hang out. And with such a finesse on women and men, it is bound for James to feel privileged when he talks with him and more than that to follow his advice on dealing with girls. Connell is a man of problems with himself and thus routes the game as he wants in subtle and genuine speeches. He makes the wrong seem so right to conveniently blamed on the nature of behaviour. Reynolds in his guest performance does the sleazy guy and when the time comes for James to see the man behind the mask, the scene is with maturity of the actors and especially the director.

Jesse Eisenberg did a terrific job as the kid affected by his attitude hooked on condescending outlook of his father in “The Squid and the Whale”. Here he comes off as the naive and sweet guy wondering what is going wrong with him and woman. He seem to know the signals but it is coming every time he talks with a girl. In the film though except for the first break up, the two prominent ladies in the film Em and the bomb shell Lisa (Margarita Levieva) want him for actually who he is. Lisa though wants to try something different but with Em he begins to feel home and appreciates her. And Kristen Stewart whom I resented in “Twilight” is effective indeed. She brings the maturity and the dumbness for the Em of that age with the anger and silent rage under her lovely appearance.

What Connell says about the wiring up of men to trigger their erotic senses is a serious comment. It is how convenient and inconvenient it becomes to roam around with perplexed opinions about the opposite sex. The delicacy to deal with that feeling to tell or not to screws up for an obvious mistake. It makes James worried on the chances he gets and the opportunities he would miss to finally do something of his romance life. Sometimes the most rightful thing would be the glaze over the eye in viewing the tempting wrong. That is what makes the choice so wonderful to pursue and get it exactly to the horrendous awkwardness. And “Adventureland” a posed comedy actually addresses the tone of that change in both the sexes.

People who expect to see a hilarious raunchy comedy would get some but not as they would love to get. Instead the film gets them inside it through those jokes and then puts them in to the places of these two young people in the verge of seeing their adulthood through in passing cloud of floating chances. It would make the men feeling they are getting out of the shell while women realize that there is a wrongness in the perception towards men and themselves. This is something really wonderful the film attains with a composure questioning whether you witnessed a comedy or a serious drama.