==Shed a Light on Love==

Which Mottola definitely did, after his box office hit “Superbad”, Mottola returned with his own script which strived to be an entertaining, funny, wanderlust and heartfelt film about a recent college graduate, who due to some bad luck, is forced to take a shitty summer job at a themepark; Adventureland.

The film starts out slow, and many of the scenes featured in the trailer are right there at the beginning of the movie, you get a general sense f who the characters are and why the main, James, must take this terrible job. The script is often sharp and funny, and the characters are believable even though most of them are very two-dimensional.

For the most of the film, it goes from being funny to very funny, thanks to the in-between antics of Bill Hader and Kristin Wigg, who steal the show once they get on-screen. The rest of the cast is very serious and emotional (with exception of Matt Bush’s nutsack-punching Frigo). The tightrope between drama and comedy is a difficult thing to perform and many of this movie’s drama scenes come across very forced. While Mottola and Eisenberg show the awkwardness of the main character to an almost great effect. Eisenberg is right at home with this kind of character, he also managed to direct the entire cast in giving realistic performances.

From the directing, to cinematography and even the editing, it all comes together as a well-made film. As with all films, it’s the acting that ties the whole thing together in the end. Kristen Stewart gives the best performance of all, balancing humor, sadness and anxiety well, easily creating the deepest character in the film. Jesse Eisenberg gives a strong performance and made me forget he was actually ‘acting’. The rest of the cast do a good job too, making the entire film feeling very realistic.

Yet the movie can’t escape the fact that it’s a fantasy. For a guy, who’s still a virgin and has so much trouble with relationships, awkwardlytalking about classic novels and exes on dates, he’s instantly involved with two beautiful girls who are obviously outside of his reach. His character does experience conflict, yes, there’s plenty, but everything works out just fine in the end. In terms of the plot it’s a predictable movie and it goes the route pretty much all the other take too. He doesn’t exactly get what he wanted in the beginning, but surprise suprirse, at the end of the summer he finds what he really wanted (but didn’t know) all along.

It is through what should've been the worst summer of his life that he finds the path his life is going to take.

Adventureland manages to be a funny, entertaining but shallow film, that has you laughing and feeling for it’s characters, and at the same time has you wondering about all of the film’s missed opportunities to be anything but.. forgettable.


5,7/10