The Way Way Back

The Way Way Back (2013) takes place over a summer. Duncan, fourteen, goes to a beach house with his mother and her new boyfriend. In the first minute of the drive the man asks him what he would rate himself out of ten and answers for him: a three. Duncan spends the summer escaping the house to work at a nearby water park. The title comes from the rear seat of the car; in old station wagons the rear facing bench at the back was called the way way back, and that is where Duncan sits. Nat Faxon and Jim Rash wrote and directed. They had won an Oscar for the screenplay of The Descendants; this is their first film as directors and the script had been sitting with them for years. Sam Rockwell plays Owen, who manages the water park, and all the film's energy comes from him. Steve Carell plays the boyfriend, and having a comic actor play a thoroughly unpleasant man is the film's best decision. Toni Collette plays the mother and Allison Janney the neighbour. It was shot in Massachusetts and the water park is a real one, Water Wizz. It premiered at Sundance, where its distribution rights sold in one of the largest deals of that festival. It runs 103 minutes. Good for: films about adolescence, summer atmosphere, and Sam Rockwell. Less good for: the structure is familiar; the withdrawn boy and the adult who sees him has been done many times. The mother's decisions arrive late. Most of the supporting characters at the park exist for a single joke.