It’s the summer of 1987, which means I’m cleaning rooms at a motel in Ellsworth, Maine between my sophomore and junior years of college. It’s not my dream summer job by any means; I’d much rather be manning the midway at the Blue Hill Fair, urging passersby to shoot squirtguns at the clown’s nose for the chance to win themselves a decorative and functional Def Leppard mirror. The screams from the Zipper ride, the smell of fried dough in the air, the sounds of AC/DC wafting from the Tilt-a-Whirl, the camaraderie of the carnies…what could be better?
The summer that could have been comes to life in Greg Mottola’s Adventureland, although not quite as vividly as I’d hoped. Jesse Eisenberg (The Squid and the Whale) stars as recent college grad James Brennan, a soft-spoken, sensitive virgin whose plans of spending the summer in Europe are derailed when his father is demoted. Still hoping to attend graduate school at Columbia in the fall, James is forced to take a summer job at the local amusement park, where he meets cute-but-brooding Em (Twilight's Kristen Stewart). They bond over weed and a love of alternative rock, but little does James know Em is sleeping with married maintenance man Connell (Ryan Reynolds).
Mottola the screenwriter undermines Mottola the director as the relationship issues between James and Em are put through some very familiar paces, particular once James, unsure whether he and Em are an exclusive item, goes on a date with the hottie of the park, Lisa P (Margarita Levieva). The plot mechanics are a drag because Adventureland is at its best when it’s in laid-back, hanging out mode. The park is populated by an appealing cast, including former Freaks and Geeks-er Martin Starr as intellectual Joel and the underused Bill Hader and Kristen Wiig as managers Rich and Paulette. Mottola nails the seedy attraction of the park and its surroundings (including a dead-on townie bar featuring the obligatory dreadful cover band), but much of the comedic potential of Adventureland itself remains untapped. There’s a little too much puking for comic effect, although Superbad fans should be warned that gross bodily function humor isn’t a priority here.
It’s not really fair to review the movie I wanted to see rather than the one Mottola made, but I would have preferred a more freewheeling, ensemble-friendly approach – a 1987 Dazed and Confused set in an amusement park rather than the creaky rom-com that emerges. The overreliance on Eisenberg and Stewart to carry the film is misguided because their personalities aren’t up to the task; Eisenberg is fine but we already have a Michael Cera, and Stewart is a bit out of her depth in Em’s darker moments. Their ride is too familiar, and I really wanted to hear those screams from the Zipper.
