Way Cool

January in Canada, and Winter is on.  This is swell if you like the season.  Otherwise, you might be daydreaming about an escape from the cold.  The Way Way Back (Nat Faxon & Jim Rash, 2013) is a dramedy set during a summer holiday, and for its running time, fits the bill of a sunny escape nicely.

II.

Way Back had me cheering for its success by an early scene, where 14-year old Duncan (Liam James) is crooning along to REO Speedwagon's "Can't Fight This Feeling Anymore". Then the camera widens our gaze, to reveal that the person who has caught Duncan in full singing feeling is the girl next-door, Susanna (AnnaSophia Robb).  Susanna makes no comment, but she doesn't have to.  Duncan's amusing embarrassment speaks for itself.

The child of a broken marriage, Duncan has been obliged to travel for summer vacation to a town near Cape Cod with his mother Pam (Toni Collette), her boyfriend Trent (Steve Carell) and Trent's daughter, Steph (Zoe Levin).  Arriving at the house they'll be staying at for the duration, they meet the neighbours.  Betty (Allison Janney) is an amiable boozer, a loose-talking single mom to Susanna and Peter (River Alexander).  A married couple, Kip (Rob Corddry) and Joan (Amanda Peet) completes the group.

Duncan next meets the one other adult significant to his stay in town.  But before we get to him, the film attends to the man who has already been seeking to be significant in Duncan's life - Pam's boyfriend. Trent proves himself a bully, in an uptight, petty sort of way. Later, he will put the cherry on his cake of virtues by displaying a cheating eye for the ladies.

Along comes the charismatic Owen (Sam Rockwell), who it would be polite to describe as an apprentice-adult.  Owen works, sort of, at the town water park.  With his lazy patter of quips he seems to be auditioning, badly as not, for a standup slot at a comedy club.

III.

That Owen is so obviously the hip slacker, who so obviously becomes a genial father-figure (who Duncan so obviously needs), demonstrates a larger point about how this film treats cinematic cliche. The coming of age summer movie: we know this story.  But what Way Back does so well is to present familiar sights, sounds and situations just long enough to register with us, and then lets them fade away.  This allows for a sense of space in the film, suffusing with a sweet nostalgia.  It is a beguiling thing to watch build, even if it's only as real as The Way Way Back.