Washington Post: An 'Adventureland' of the Heart

By Ann Hornaday
Washington Post
Excerpt
April 3, 2009

As "Adventureland" opens, viewers may be tempted to think they know what they're in for: another coming-of-age romance, in this case with the added nostalgic twist of being set in the 1980s. But quickly it becomes clear that this amusing, observant and thoroughly satisfying drama/comedy won't take any expected turns and twists. Rather, in its own poignant and gentle way, "Adventureland" restores a welcome note of humanism to a genre that has lately become little more than a repository for fart-and-vomit jokes.

Jesse Eisenberg plays James Brennan, a recent college graduate whose plans for a European vacation before starting grad school are foiled when his family suffers an economic setback. James is forced to live at home and get a job at the local amusement park. There he meets an eclectic group of lost and striving souls, including a pipe-smoking would-be philosopher (Martin Starr), a voluptuous femme fatale (Margarita Levieva) and a sultry, mysterious girl named Em (Kristen Stewart), with whom James furtively falls in love.

That's the bare-bones story of "Adventureland," but in the hands of writer-director Greg Mottola, the movie becomes much more than the sum of its plot points. Although the boredom, slap-happy high jinks and hesitant romance of James's summer are all familiar movie tropes, "Adventureland" never attacks them right on the nose. Rather, the movie's style is oblique, looking for inspiration in the quiet quirks of behavior, rather than through less subtle gags and stunts (someone throws up in the movie, but it isn't played for cheap laughs)...

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