What happens when a recent graduate’s trip to Europe and grad school plans fall through because of his parent’s money troubles? He loses his university-prescribed rose colored glasses and has to get a crappy job at a local amusement park. All is not lost, however, because James (our down and out Comp Lit major) finds friends and, improbably, actually grows up a little during his stint cleaning up puke and managing the ring toss.
I have seen this movie twice now and happily I was not disappointed after the second viewing. The dialogue was just as low-key as I remembered, and the soundtrack still provided clever yet subtle commentary on the action taking place. Kristen Stewart was still great as the complicated love interest, and other cast members still provided unexpected and thoughtful counterpoints to lead man Jesse Eisenberg’s wry and shy character James.
Adventureland was originally marketed as a silly college comedy, full of vulgar jokes, sex, and misadventures. That is not an accurate representation of what this movie is about, or how it speaks to the audience. It deals with serious themes and is really more of a coming of age narrative than a balls and pratfalls kind of story. There are some of these types of jokes in the movie, but they are far from the main point or even the main appeal.
That being said, this isn’t likely to be the kind of movie where you’ll watch it and have any type of personal revelations after the fact. But should you choose to watch it, you will be treated to a smartly written, quietly good story about a guy trying to figure out what he really needs out of life to be happy. And I think that’s worth watching.
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