The Way Way Back

"Where were you Duncan?"

"Nowhere."

"That's a long time to be nowhere?"

"Well that's where I was!"

Shy teen Duncan (James) is forced to spend the summer with his mom, Pam (Collette), her boyfriend Trent (Carell), and his daughter Steph (Levin).  Trent consistently belittles and humiliates Duncan.  Duncan is content to spend his summer avoiding Trent and doing as little as possible, but their neighbors have other plans.  Recently divorced Betty (Janney) and her children live next door and continually get involved in everyone's affairs.  They also spend a significant amount of time with Trent's good friends, Kip (Corddry) and Joan (Peet).

Duncan finds a bike in the garage and begins exploring the town.  On one of his trips he discovers the local water park called Water Wizz.  The manager, Owen (Rockwell), takes Duncan under his wing and hires him to do odd jobs around the park.  Duncan is happy at the park and learns to have fun with people who accept him as he is, even as his home life gets more complicated.


Nat Faxon and Jim Rash wrote 2011's The Descendants and won the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay.  For this film, they decided to direct and write the story from scratch, based in part on their own teen years.  The story balances deep emotional moments, uncomfortable situations, and comedy well.  Faxon and Rash are also comedy actors.  Faxon was the star of TV's Ben and Kate (which was cancelled after 1 season) and has had small roles in other films (including several Broken Lizard Films).  Rash plays Dean Pelton on TV's Community and has had many small roles in other films and TV shows.  They have funny, but small acting parts in the film as Water Wizz employees.

The cast is excellent.  Steve Carell completely abandons comedy and embraces an unlikeable character.  Toni Collette also delivers a solid performance as a woman torn between defending her son and sustaining the relationship with her boyfriend.  Allison Janney is a delight playing a character that could be seen as annoying in the hands of another actress.  She is loud and brash, but still extremely caring.  The film focuses more on Liam James' Duncan, who takes a while to warm to, but grows on you.  Sam Rockwell also kills it as Owen.  But the performances as a whole are tremendous.

An enjoyable film.

The Way Way Back (2013) 103 minutes
Rating: PG-13 for thematic elements, language, some sexual content and brief drug material
Director: Nat Faxon & Jim Rash
Starring: Steve Carell as Trent
Toni Collette as Pam
Allison Janney as Betty
AnnaSophia Robb as Susanna
Sam Rockwell as Owen
Maya Rudolph as Caitlin
Liam James as Duncan
Rob Corddry as Kip
Amanda Peet as Joan
River Alexander as Peter
Zoe Levin as Steph
Nat Faxon as Roddy
Jim Rash as Lewis