marcicat | movie review: The Way Way Back

This movie kind of reminded me of ‘Super 8,’ and I’m not sure if that was just because of the boy-on-a-bicycle on summer vacation thing it had going on, or if there was more to it. (Spoiler alert: there are no aliens in ‘The Way Way Back’!)

I kind of liked it? I enjoyed watching it as a family thing, that was nice. (2nd Spoiler: not a traumatic movie to watch with your parents!)

Most of the characters were engaging and interesting. I tried to suspend disbelief entirely about the whole water park work experience — I just pretended it was more a Narnia-like magical realm than a fixture of our reality.

Two character notes:

Trent (the mom’s boyfriend), was Immensely Creepy. Played by Steve Carell, I kept expecting him to be like the dad in Little Miss Sunshine, and he kept being Not That. There was some serious channeling of ruthlessly manipulative serial killer going on there — totally freaky.

Owen (the water park owner), on the other hand, did an amazing job making his character not seem creepy and weird. I kept expecting for it to go somewhere I didn’t want, and it kept being fine. (Also, he’s played by Sam Rockwell, who also played Guy in Galaxy Quest!)

Mirrored from The Marci Rating System.