Adventureland

(2009)

Directed by

Greg Mottola

Review by Zach Saltz

Greg Mottola’s Adventureland attempts to emulate the dry, deadpan humor of the films of Wes Anderson and Alexander Payne by way of the angst-ridden teen coming-of-age genre.  It is unsuccessful in its attempt to do most anything, particularly develop multi-dimensional, original characters in unique and unpredictable situations.  The film is about as predictable as John Daly getting back off the saddle.  It is as though the producers of Adventureland simply decided to throw Benjamin Braddock from The Graduate to 20 years into the future (1987) and replace the Simon and Garfunkel soundtrack with Lou Reed.

The film stars Jesse Eisenberg, in basically a reprisal of his role from The Squid and the Whale, as James Brennan, a gawky 20-ish college graduate who’s read too much Chaucer (his degree was in Renaissance Studies) and spent little time absorbed in the real world.  When his parents inform him that they will not be able to pay for his trip to Europe, nor his graduate school in New York, James is forced to find a summer job.  Enter Adventureland, a kiddie theme park which doesn’t require resumes, only a taped-on smile and occasional sobriety.  James soon finds kindred spirits in the equally-lost souls working at the park, such as Joel, a nihilistic juvenile intellectual snob (not that Adventureland needed more than one of these already), and Em, a spunky, sardonic brunette who catches James’ eye.  The two hit it off in a cute bit involving a BAP (Big-Ass Panda, not Black African Princess, thank you Halle Berry), but matters are complicated by Em’s sex invites from the park’s handyman, Connell (Ryan Reynolds), who has the romantic gentlemanliness to invite her to a screw session in his mother’s basement. 

There are a few elements in the film that are accurate, particularly to anyone who has ever been a thankless, prospect-less college student (one at a time, please).  The fact that James is unable to find a job anywhere – even the local dives as a busboy – rings true.  The bit roles of the park managers (by SNL alum Bill Hader and Krisen Wiig) are may be the most obnoxiously entertaining overenthusiastic, overcaffeinated losers since Peter MacNicol and Christine Baranski in Addams Family Values.  And the fact that the Adventureland park is completely rigged (the milk bottle lids are in fact larger than the round pegs) comes as a relief to the carnival-game inept, such as myself.

But other than these brief interludes of passing entertainment, the rest of Adventureland is boring, meddlesome, and actually quite implausible.  Early in the film, James’ Europe-bound best friend supplies him with a small bag of pot; are we really to believe that this tiny bag lasts the entire summer, and is smoked by every major character in the story?  Even James Franco in Pineapple Express would shake his head at that one.  Eisenberg, as he was in Squid and the Whale, is too precocious to be well-liked, while Stewart’s role is reduced to Evil Stepmother Syndrome.  Ryan Reynolds is entirely miscast here; the role of Connell (Em’s occasional lover/Adventureland handyman) requires an actor younger, cockier, and more ragged.  Reynolds is too glamorous and pretty boy, and his attempts to fix Adventureland’s rides with a hammer and screwdriver are like asking Keanu Reeves to play an emotionally sensitive animal doctor.  And the final scene of the film is so oversimplifying, we find ourselves asking why director Mottola did not choose to instead call his film The 22 Year Old Virgin.

Adventureland does not promote stupidity, nor does it treat its characters (or its viewers) condescendingly.  It tries to be heartfelt, but gets lost in formulaic devices, poor acting, and overlength.  A much better film about a summer of fruitless employment, first love, and illicit drugs was made last year in The Wackness (it also need not be said that film’s 1994 R&B is more flavorful than this film’s 1987 butt rock).  Adventureland is, therefore, a rather benign failure, but one that should nonetheless be avoided in favor of more sincere movies portraying intelligent teens, summertime jobs, and Big-Ass Pandas.

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