The Way, Way Back

There’s a scene in “The Way, Way Back” where Duncan’s mom Pam explains how she was won over by her new boyfriend Trent. “We’re all in this together,” he told her. That’s sweet, but what’s “this” and why exactly are they “in this” at all?

“The Way, Way Back” will work for many as an indie, coming-of-age crowd pleaser, but through its characters and its story, it struggles to find a voice and a purpose to build a film with real heart and depth.

Just why is Duncan (Liam James), the film’s 14-year-old protagonist, an especially mopey teenager? Hunched shoulders and head down at all times, he can barely string a few words together, let alone tell us why he’s so depressed or what he’s like. His interests seem to include REO Speedwagon and playing with sand, but that’s not much to go on.

His real bitterness stems from a dislike of his mom’s (Toni Collette) new boyfriend Trent (Steve Carell). Trent has taken them both on a vacation to some undisclosed quaint beach town for apparently the whole summer, and although he’s trying to make this a family, the two don’t seem to get along.

Duncan is however drawn to the lazy, oafish, playboy owner of a waterpark named Owen (Sam Rockwell). Owen offers him a job and takes him under his wing, teaching him Midwestern urban legends and how to not-so-discreetly stare at girls in bikinis. He even gives him helpful prodding to join in a dance battle.

So who is Owen? What does he like about Duncan? What’s he doing stuck in this dead-end job? How does he actually inspire Duncan beyond a few laughs and some crowd-pleaser set pieces?

“The Way, Way Back” doesn’t say. Directors Nat Faxon and Jim Rash are content to have Sam Rockwell play the “cool guy,” the mystical, oddball, not-quite father figure in Duncan’s life, a character who is quickly becoming a staple of coming of age movies (“Mud,” “Adventureland,” “Crazy, Stupid Love”).

Rockwell has fun in the role, but with nowhere to be and nowhere to go, this most interesting character feels paper thin. He’s the sarcastic ringmaster leading a cast of indie royalty actors Allison Janney, Maya Rudolph, Steve Carell, Amanda Peet, Toni Collette and Rob Corddry. They all lack that same level of depth and consequently push the boundaries between indie quirky and plain insensitive.

Faxon and Rash wrote the screenplay for “The Descendants,” in which all the characters were similarly difficult and ambiguous. But that film had Alexander Payne to juggle the more difficult personas.

Rather, “The Way, Way Back” feels intentionally padded with colorful character actors designed to make the film more complex than it is. Rudolph’s Caitlyn is a potential love interest for Rockwell, but she doesn’t have much to do. Janney plays the drunken neighbor Betty for laughs, but her loony and punny tendencies get the better of her with a few awkward, head scratcher gags.

Every time you wish the film would pause for actual development, a comic set piece of the quirky, sexual or insensitive kind fills the void. Duncan’s make-shift dance-off on the first day of work is one of the more contrived moments of the year, and it has no right to also serve as the single turning point into being the cool, comfortable kid who found his place at home. Similarly, the watershed, climactic moment need not actually involve a stunt on a waterslide.

Indie crowd pleasers are all too rare of a journey during this summer vacation of movies, but even “The Way, Way Back” needs to find a reason to take us somewhere.

2 ½ stars