Adventureland is not what you would expect. Written and directed by Greg Mottola (Superbad) and prominently featuring Bill Hader (Saturday Night Live) in trailers, Adventureland is marketed as another Judd Apatow-style comedy, replete with liquor-store hijinks and lovably pathetic heroes.
In some ways, it is that movie. James (Jesse Eisenberg, Squid and the Whale), who has just graduated from Oberlin with a B.A. in comparative literature and his virginity still intact, is a more intellectual, less funny version of Michael Cera's Evan in Superbad. He shares Cera's lanky frame, sensitivity and adorable nerdiness (When justifying his virginity to a girl, he refers to sex as "intercourse").
After his resume and letter of recommendation (for mowing his neighbor's lawn) are rejected by a number of employers, James takes a job at a dingy amusement park in his hometown to make some cash for the awaiting Columbia School of Journalism.
Despite certain similarities, this is not another Superbad. In his third feature film, Mottola moves away from the outrageous comedy model to examine a love story amidst surrounding sadness. Em (Kristen Stewart, Twilight), a fellow game booth worker at the park, is James's love interest. After her mother died of cancer, her father married a "status-obsessed witch," which left Em in an affair with a married man and on the verge of alcoholism.
James's household is only slightly more functional. His graduation present, funding for a Euro trip with his college buddies, was withdrawn after his alcoholic father was demoted. His parents, who had once pressured him to attend an Ivy League school, are now asking him to consider the state school instead.
Coming of age is difficult in this environment, but James and Em still manage to find each other and true love.
Connell (Ryan Reynolds, Waiting), the aforementioned married maintenance guy at the park, serves as a cautionary reminder of what may lie ahead for those about to enter the real world. Connell was forced into a marriage that he didn't want and has extended his adolescence by working at a theme park staffed by teenagers and college students. He tells bogus stories about jamming with Lou Reed and flirts with every girl at the park, all while having an affair with Em.
However, Adventureland is not all tragedy. Mottola relies on Bobby and Paulette (Hader and Kristen Wiig, SNL), who run the dilapidated fun park with all of their characteristic quirkiness, to bring the movie back to comedy after the more serious scenes.
Joel (Martin Starr), the prototypical "games guy," also provides some comic relief. As a Russian literature and Slavic languages major who loves Gogol and describes himself as an existential pagan and pragmatic nihilist, his humor is more highbrow than Bobby, and Paulette's or Jonah Hill's in Superbad.
He is set in stark contrast with Lisa P. (Margarita Levieva) and Pete (Dan Bittner), who work in rides at the park. Lisa and Pete spend their nights dancing at a cheesy disco, Razzmatazz, and care more about Mercedes convertibles and Judas Priest floor seats than about literature.
Mottola stays true to the genre of coming-of-age films set in the '80s by dividing his characters into nerds and jocks (or, in this case, games workers and rides workers). He takes some cheap shots at his caricatures.
When James begins to tell Lisa about his dream of becoming a travel journalist like Dickens she cuts him off to muse on the differences in nautical travel. "Sailboats are way more cooler, you know, like more classic. But I bet speedboats would be a lot more fun." When James told Em the same Dickens spiel she listens carefully and is interested.
It is simple dichotomies like this one that put Adventureland on a predictable course from early on in the film. Fortunately, James, Kristen and Connell are more layered than the one-dimensional supporting characters. Each of them grows and changes in ways that are slightly unexpected.
During this transformative and revelatory summer, there is one constant. Toward the end of the season, when James returns to Adventureland to collect his final check, after his entire existence has been turned on its head in just one summer, Bobby is still shouting at park "litterbugs" and Connell is retelling his Lou Reed story to a new group of teenage girls.
Adventureland, which was inspired by films like Fellini's I Vitelloni and The Last Picture Show, among others, does not succeed as a comedy. As a story of a boy becoming a man, it is surprisingly fresh and sweet. It portrays the real problems and cravings of young adults and gives them room to live and grow in a world that will disappoint them.
