 "Photo: Courtesy Google Images")
Forget the economy, getting a real job or growing up after graduation. Get a job at an amusement park and smoke and drink your summer away.
Well, at least that's what the characters in the new film by writer and director Greg Mottola ("Superbad") did.
Set in the summer of 1987 before the full measure of the Reagan-era economic downturn, "Adventureland" is a charming, yet completely unrealistic, tale of a boy just trying to survive the summer.
In a moment that sets the scene for the entire film, James Brennan (Jesse Eisenberg) learns that his father has been demoted.
The cut in income will deprive James his graduation gift of spending the summer in Europe with his friends followed by graduate school at Columbia where he wants to attend journalism school (poor, misguided guy).
Armed with a B.A. in Comparative Literature, James tries in vain to get a respectable, well-paying job to pass the summer and save enough money to pay for his part of an apartment in NYC, thus salvaging a portion of his college dreams.
He settles instead to become a games man at an amusement park called Adventureland.
A summer surrounded by the outcasts of society - dorks, losers, potheads, drunks and those just too incompetent to get a real job - really couldn't possibly have a good influence on the straight-laced, middle-class boy from the suburbs.
Being the geeky, poetry-reading romantic that he is, James quickly falls for Em (Kristen Stewart, "Twilight"), who is having a summer romance with the married park maintenance guy, Connell (Ryan Reynolds).
This film is far from what was expected based upon the precedent set by "Superbad." It is astonishingly sweet.
It is a true tragi-comedy in that all of the characters look to the future with hope, despite their lack of potential.
They all take themselves just a tad too seriously.
At times, it's hard to tell if Mottola is shooting for a comedy or a coming-of-age drama.
Off-the-wall comedy comes from Bill Hader and Kristen Wiig who play the married park owners. And crude humor is never lacking in the crowd made predominantly of late teen to early 20s boys.
Despite being set in a summer 20 years ago, the story line is timely.
The economy sucks and we are all inching toward graduation.
James begins the summer with dreams, a bag full of weed and his virginity.
He ends with much less. I will let you guess which ones are lost.
Throughout the entire flick, you can't help but pull for James.
Despite the glaring truth that his less than minimum wage job could not possibly pay for his grad work at one of the top schools in the country, his earnestness leaves you praying for a miracle.
"Adventureland" is a good tale for us all to see. No, it won't likely inspire you to go out and find a great job once May rolls around.
But you will probably be able to relate to the characters and get a few laughs out of it.
I have an inkling suspicion Worlds of Fun just might get a few extra applications this season.
alang@unews.com
