The Way Way Back

First Hit:  Very well acted film about a very young man finding his self-esteem and himself.

There are lots of young men who have had or are having the feeling of just being worthless and not of value.

At the opening of the film, Trent (Steve Carell), Pam (Toni Collette), Steph (Zoe Levin) and Duncan (Liam James) are headed to Trent’s summer beach house for an extended vacation. Duncan is asked by Trent, his mother’s boyfriend, what is his number?  “How do you rank yourself between 1 and 10?” Duncan doesn’t want to answer, is clearly irritated with the question, and reluctantly responds with “6”, “I’m a 6” he says. 

Trent laughs off this number and immediately says “I think you’re a 3.” Then he tells him why he’s a 3 and none of it is helpful to young Duncan. In fact it puts yet another wall between him and Trent. He hates being in this situation, wants to be with his dad (who now lives with young girl in California) and hates that his mom has chosen this man to be with.

They drive up to the house, the neighbor Betty (Alison Janney) is waiting to “get the party started”. Betty is divorced and has two kids Susanna (AnnaSophia Robb) and Peter (River Alexander). Trent and Betty invite other neighbors Kip and Joan (Rob Corddry and Amanda Peet respectively) and their regression into too much drinking, smoking dope, and sexual dalliances begins.

To get away from the adult madness, Duncan starts taking off every day on a bike just to get away. Eventually he finds his way to the area’s "Water Wizzin" which is a water park. Here he meets Owen (Sam Rockwell) who immediately sizes Duncan up and makes it his business to help the kid find his way.

All through this film we are given views into the incongruent nature and behavior of parents and the effects on young teenage kids who are also looking to find their way into adulthood.

James is sublime. He fully captures the boy who has little self-esteem. His walk, look, and manner of speaking are spot-on perfect, a truly outstanding performance. Collette, is very good as Duncan’s mom who would like to trust a man in a relationship again and goes beyond her comfort zone to find out if the relationship with Trent will work. Carell is very good as the jerk guy who is trying to be friends with Duncan but asserting his alpha maleness to keep control of things. Levin is good as Trent’s daughter who doesn’t like what she is seeing and wants to grow up too soon. Robb is very strong as the girl who reaches out to Duncan and is touched by his path. Rockwell is extraordinary as the guy who never grew up but wants to help young guys find their way. Janney is very good as the nosy, drinks too much, and innocently flirtatious neighbor. Nat Faxon and Jim Rash wrote and directed this film and their spot-on screenplay and direction brought this film home elegantly.

Overall:  This is a wonderful film and truly a joy to watch.

Identity Theft

First Hit:  A general waste of time, not funny and does little to bring to light the prevalent issue of identity theft.

This film has an identity problem. It tries to be funny, point out the issue of identity theft, and tries to be heartwarming or meaningful. It is none of these.

Watching Diana (Melissa McCarthy) is like watching a train wreck, you know it’s going to happen, you know it will be catastrophic, and the only thing left is a mess. I’ve yet to see McCarthy be in anything interesting, intelligent or of value. She appears to specialize in uncultivated actions of an overweight person trying to fit in, be funny or the center of attention. Sandy Peterson (Jason Bateman) does his best to hold the film together but this is a match made hell.

The presentation of the subject and story is rarely interesting and mostly just grossly reaching for laughs.

McCarthy is horrible in this character and it there was nothing about her character that would make the audience be interested in her. The attempts to have Sandy’s kids like her were grossly obvious ploys to have us care about the character – too little too late. Bateman tried his best and did the best he could with the script, direction, and McCarthy. The moments he spends and communicates with his kids and wife Trish (Amanda Peet) are good and are the only things good in this film. Peet, in a minor role, was OK. Craig Mazin wrote a poorly conceived script. Seth Gordon tried to make the story interesting but the script, McCarthy, and idea were guaranteed to make this film fail.

Overall:  Not worth more than 5 minutes of anyone’s time.

Martian Child

First Hit: I liked some aspects of this film and others just seemed false and formulated.

I generally like John Cusack films so I was curious to see this film.

The film begins with John mourning the loss of his wife. To fill this hole in his life he thinks about adopting a child because this is what he and his departed wife had planned to do.

There isn’t much depth leading to this decision nor is there much in the way of counseling here to give John’s character a deeper background on his wanting to adopt or his pain. He ends up choosing a young boy who believes he came from Mars.

Over time you get some background on the child (Bobby Coleman) but not enough to make it work for me.

The formula is that John takes this child on, goes through ups and downs with this kid, only to build his resolve to love and be there for this kid no matter what.

The kid tests him and the ultimate test is he runs away and puts himself in a dangerous position. John saves the day.

What did I like about the film? There was a sweetness to some of the scenes and I loved the plate throwing scene; how it started seemed real and how it ended was perfect.

Also some of the scenes with the gardener (Amanda Peet) were endearing and you knew that she would become involved with John and Bobby at the end.

Overall: At best this is probably a DVD film to rent.