Parents' Guide to The Way, Way Back

Coming-of-age dramedies rarely ring true anymore, suffocated as they are by so many cliches, but this film is an exception; it's a gem, authentic on so many levels. It captures the alienation and isolation that come with being a 14-year-old boy whose parents are divorced and whose mother is trying to figure out how to get on her feet again, making a go of a relationship with a man who isn't good enough for her. Few characters here are stereotypes; most of them are complicated in really interesting and very real ways. Take Collette's Pam, who cares about her son but is distracted by a boyfriend who sort of is Mr. Right; how to juggle that? And yet she's not villainized. Even Carell, who's playing against type here as Trent, manages to make him seem like a real person, even if he's a jerk. Rockwell's Owen is dangerously close to caricature, but he never crosses the line. He isn't portrayed as the perfect polar opposite of Trent, just a better alternative. And then there's James' Duncan, who isn't a loser, even if others think he is. He knows this, and he's all the more fascinating because of it.

The film distills summer's languorous, seductively lazy, but frustratingly indolent ways, how it's suffused with so much expectation and offers both joy and disappointment. The movie initially lags and is sometimes tripped up by a certain aimlessness, but perhaps that's how summer is, too? It feels too much all at once, but sweet once you let it unfold as it will. You're advised to enjoy The Way, Way Back in the same way.