THE WAY WAY BACK: Perfect Mix Of Bildungsroman & Summer Nostalgia

Duncan (Liam James) is undoubtedly a kindred spirit to many young men because he’s the epitome of awkward. His posture is terminally awful. He has no confidence, no presence, his hair could use a trim, and he’s pale and unassertive. He doesn’t even have a go-to dance move, heaven forbid. He’s the kind of kid who wears jeans to the beach in the throes of summer.

But that’s what we have at face value. The problem is he plays into the narrative that others have written for him prematurely and it’s a self-fulfilling prophecy. Take Trent (Steve Carell), the man Duncan’s mother (Toni Collette) is seeing at the moment. He calls the boy out on his apparent lack of social skills and criticizes him for being a 3 on a scale from 1 to 10.

That’s what Ducan has to go up against as his makeshift family travels to the beachfront for summer vacation. It looks like a dead end, several months that Duncan will simply have to survive, tagging along awkwardly with Trent’s self-absorbed teenage daughter (Zoe Levin) or getting belittled by Trent in small ways.

And yet this same summer that looks like a veritable disaster ends up becoming the most formative time in Duncan’s life because, in the thick of all the bad stacked up against him, he is introduced to a world of so much good. It’s one of those moments of sheer happenstance. He begins riding a pink bicycle around town to get away from the suffocation at home and finds himself crossing paths with everyone’s new favorite friend Owen (Sam Rockwell).

New Friend, New Life

They meet over a Pac-Man game and it’s awkward. Because every conversation Duncan has is awkward (ie. he talks to his pretty next-door neighbor Susannah about the weather). But not about to give up on a kid in need of some camaraderie, Owen lets the lad into his life and offers him something remarkable: A job helping him at the local water park Wizz World.

In itself cleaning up vomit and stacking chairs isn’t the image of a perfect summer. But by reaching out and giving Duncan something, Owen impacts someone else more than he will ever know. Because that park represents so much for Duncan. It’s the family he’s struggling to find. It’s his fountain of confidence. It provides him a much-needed platform where even he can be cool and be known by others. That’s what we all want, to be known and appreciated.

That’s why he returns again and again. In fact, it’s so apparent how often he rides off that Susannah (AnnaSophia Robb) follows him one day and the rest is history. This girl who is different than her peers begins to take an interest in his paradise because she sees a confidence and enthusiasm in him that never existed before and she too seeks an escape.

Meanwhile, Duncan’s home life is still a shambles. Things are shot to hell as Trent is cheating on his mother and their vacation gets quickly terminated. He’s unhappy with it all and there’s very little his mother can do about the situation. She feels helpless. Forced to say goodbye to the best family he ever had, there’s still some satisfaction in one last trip to the water park.

Duncan emblazons his name forever in the lore of Wizz World and he gets the joy of Owen facing down Trent. Perhaps most importantly, the ride in the “way back” of the station wagon is a little less lonely on the return trip. His mother has made the concerted effort to be by his side which is a statement of her new resolve to hold their family unit together.

Summer Nostalgia Dream

This film is a dream. No one would go so far as to say that this is the dream summer or the dream job but it is a bit of a fantasy and we wish it could be true. Because Wizz World, much like Adventureland before it, is an oasis from the worries and distractions of the world at large. It’s one of those places frozen in time year in and year out –  in this case, stuck permanently in the 1980s. But this Neverland, far from stunting your growth, helps one teenager discover more of his confidence than he ever thought possible.

Likewise, Sam Rockwell is a cinematic creation, the voice we always wish we had, the cool guy we wish we had in our corner, the jokester who helps us become a better version of ourselves by bringing us out of our shells. In some ways, he’s Peter Pan. Because if he existed in reality, it would only be depressing, but here there’s a special aura about him that instantly makes him our favorite character.

Meanwhile, Steve Carell, much to his credit shows another side of himself and even greater range as an actor as Trent, a man who can best be described as a Grade-A jerk. Still, there’s something tragic in the characterization. Everyone else from Maya Rudolph a fellow Wizz World manager, Allison Janney the uninhibited mom-next-door living life buzzed, or even writer/director partners Nat Faxon and Jim Rash, all utilize their various quirks and qualities to stand out. Even Rob Corddry and Amanda Peet, while playing a pair of obnoxious friends, manage to leave their marks on those roles that feel surprisingly believable.

God-Shaped Hole

Because it’s quickly realized that if The Way Way Back is about one teenager trying to find his place in the world as a more fully realized, mature version of himself, it’s simultaneously about adults trying to come to grips with mid-life – wanting and failing to hold onto their youth or the dreams they once had. Each character is a specific type (starting with Duncan and going down the line), but you realize the core struggle is similar with each person searching for some kind of meaning, some sense of belonging, or some type of contentment.

One particularly ironic moment comes in relation to a song. The adults are acting like teenagers themselves singing and dancing along to Mr. Mister’s “Kyrie Eleison” at the beach house. Peet’s character comically mispronounces the lyrics as I often did when I was younger, chanting “carry a laser down the road that I must travel.” It’s nonsensical and fun like life is right about this time. She has no idea (and I had no idea) that the phrase is literally a greek prayer crying out to God, “Lord Have Mercy.”

I have no knowledge how intentional this was or what the spiritual leanings of our screenwriters are for that matter, but if nothing else this assumed comic misunderstanding is a summation of the states of our characters and they don’t even know it! They’re carefree and oblivious until drama hits. And then they’re looking desperately for an anchor.

There is an apocryphal quotation often attributed to Pascal asserting that there is a god-shaped home within every human being that must be filled. Regardless of the origins of the words, I think it aptly sums up what all stories like this are about. It’s that universally understood existential crisis that hits us while we’re young in adolescence, keeps on hounding us when we’re adults, and maybe even lingers when we get older. I haven’t quite made it there yet so I’m not sure but I can believe it still does. That hidden layer unearthed in this story is striking for its sheer depth. It resonates with me in unexpected ways.

The Way Way Back: Conclusion

Faxon and Rash’s previous effort The Descendants (directed by Alexander Payne) is the kind of film that got award buzz and it’s a searing drama that’s almost brutal in impact. Even with some dramatic undertones, The Way Way Back is made for summer. It’s light, funny, full of life while still managing to be poignant. That last point is especially key. Coming-of-age nostalgia pieces are a personal weakness, a guilty pleasure even, and this film hits that sweet spot.

Are there flaws? Yes, but why focus on those when there’s so much that’s refreshing like a summer vacation of old that you took with your family or ventures to the water park with your best friends? Sometimes we need films like this that not only voice some of our fears but tap into the deep recesses of our fondest memories. It manages to be both emotionally honest and genuinely affirming.

What other movies do you think impeccably capture adolescence or summer on film? What formalistic or narrative aspects play into this?  

The Way Way Back was initially released in the U.S. on July 26th, 2013. It’s available on Youtube, Amazon,