Adventureland: Not so adveturous
Adventureland is a film, written and directed by Greg Mottola of "Superbad" fame, supposedly based on his time working at the amusement park of the same name in Farmingdale, New York in the 1980s. The trailers the movie wants you to believe that the film is a comedy but in reality the laughs are few and far between. Almost all of the laughs the movie has are in the trailer. My main draw to seeing the film was the fact that it was based on the amusement park I frequented as a child growing up on Long Island.
From the trailer I was led to believe that the film would center around the escapades of the employees in their day to day activities at the park. But wow was I completely misled. The film is in fact a coming of age story that uses the amusement park simply as a backdrop. The film is about a James Brennan (Jesse Eisenberg), a grad school bound college grad whose parents somehow fall out of money and ruin his entire plan. Now Brennan is forced to take a summer job in order to pay for his own grad school in the fall. However with his lack of qualifications and expereince no one is willing to hire him except for an amusement park by the name of "Adventureland." Here he meets Emily Lewin (Kristen Stewart), his love interest. And so begins the summer where Brennan becomes a man. Yes the movie is as cliche as my last sentence.
When I first left the theater I absolutely hated the film mainly because I was expecting a comedy. However what I had just seen had some funny moments but certainly was not a comedy by any means. But after "sleeping on it", so to speak, I looked at the film not as a comedy but rather as a drama. In this sense it is not a bad film but neither is it a great film. It was merely ok. The plot actually had a lot of potential but never really realizes it. There are many parts of the story that were teased at and never fleshed out. It's like a plant growing but never flowering. And to be honest the main story with James and Emily was rather dull hence my fascination with other parts of the story. Their love story was basically your standard affair, complete with the testing of trust and miscommunication.
I thought the characters were also a bit inconsistent. But that could be because the film was meant to show James' growth as a person but the growth was far to quick and abrupt. At the beginning of the film I was able to relate to the character but as the film slowly progressed my sympathies for him really dwindled and by the end I really didn't care anymore. It's hard to watch a movie when you don't care about the characters. It was almost as if Mottola just wrote down his own experiences and just expected everyone to be able to relate. I couldn't and that was partly why I did not enjoy film.
The acting was was actually surprisingly good. Kristen Stewart was especially good. Something I did not expect after her sub par performance as Bella Swan in "Twilight." She was completely believable as a teen from a broken home. Jesse Eisenberg also does a rather good job at playing the awkward kid. But sometimes I felt like his awkwardness was way over the top and overdone. But for the most part the acting jobs were great although some of the actors looked far to old to be the ages they were supposed to be.
I believe the enjoyment you get out of "Adventureland" is dependent on how much you are able to relate to Mottola as a confused kid out of college. On it's own it's not a bad film but forgettable. However I think if you can relate it could be a great film. No matter what you do do not be misled by the trailer and go in thinking it will make you laugh because for all intents and purposes it probably won't. It is a drama with some occasional funny lines of dialogue. One of my friend's put it best "It's a chick flick."
From the trailer I was led to believe that the film would center around the escapades of the employees in their day to day activities at the park. But wow was I completely misled. The film is in fact a coming of age story that uses the amusement park simply as a backdrop. The film is about a James Brennan (Jesse Eisenberg), a grad school bound college grad whose parents somehow fall out of money and ruin his entire plan. Now Brennan is forced to take a summer job in order to pay for his own grad school in the fall. However with his lack of qualifications and expereince no one is willing to hire him except for an amusement park by the name of "Adventureland." Here he meets Emily Lewin (Kristen Stewart), his love interest. And so begins the summer where Brennan becomes a man. Yes the movie is as cliche as my last sentence.
When I first left the theater I absolutely hated the film mainly because I was expecting a comedy. However what I had just seen had some funny moments but certainly was not a comedy by any means. But after "sleeping on it", so to speak, I looked at the film not as a comedy but rather as a drama. In this sense it is not a bad film but neither is it a great film. It was merely ok. The plot actually had a lot of potential but never really realizes it. There are many parts of the story that were teased at and never fleshed out. It's like a plant growing but never flowering. And to be honest the main story with James and Emily was rather dull hence my fascination with other parts of the story. Their love story was basically your standard affair, complete with the testing of trust and miscommunication.
I thought the characters were also a bit inconsistent. But that could be because the film was meant to show James' growth as a person but the growth was far to quick and abrupt. At the beginning of the film I was able to relate to the character but as the film slowly progressed my sympathies for him really dwindled and by the end I really didn't care anymore. It's hard to watch a movie when you don't care about the characters. It was almost as if Mottola just wrote down his own experiences and just expected everyone to be able to relate. I couldn't and that was partly why I did not enjoy film.
The acting was was actually surprisingly good. Kristen Stewart was especially good. Something I did not expect after her sub par performance as Bella Swan in "Twilight." She was completely believable as a teen from a broken home. Jesse Eisenberg also does a rather good job at playing the awkward kid. But sometimes I felt like his awkwardness was way over the top and overdone. But for the most part the acting jobs were great although some of the actors looked far to old to be the ages they were supposed to be.
I believe the enjoyment you get out of "Adventureland" is dependent on how much you are able to relate to Mottola as a confused kid out of college. On it's own it's not a bad film but forgettable. However I think if you can relate it could be a great film. No matter what you do do not be misled by the trailer and go in thinking it will make you laugh because for all intents and purposes it probably won't. It is a drama with some occasional funny lines of dialogue. One of my friend's put it best "It's a chick flick."
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