It's the summer of 1987, and James Brennan (Jesse Eisenberg), an uptight recent college grad, can't wait to embark on his dream tour of Europe. But when his parents (Wendie Malick and Jack Gilpin) announce they can no longer subsidize his trip , James has little choice but to take a lowly job at a local amusement park, Adventureland. Forget about German beer, world-famous museums and cute French girls-James' summer will now be populated by belligerent dads, stuffed pandas, and screaming kids high on cotton candy. Lucky for James, what should have been his worst summer ever turns into quite an adventure as he discovers love in the most unlikely place with his captivating co-worker Em (Kristen Stewart), and learns to loosen up.
Sometimes gourmet mustard is enough to make freezer-burnt amusement park corndogs taste fantastic. And sometimes a sophomoric summer comedy can be dressed up with witty writing, zippy pacing and an authentic sense of nostalgia - enough so that it becomes an instant summer fling with audiences. Adventureland is a surprisingly sweet and irreverent tale of summer jobs and summer love. It reminds you how the hearts of teens and young 20-somethings flutter up and down just like the rusty deathtrap roller coasters they’re looking after. And we’ve all been on this magnificent and awful wild ride. Written and directed by Greg Mottola of “Superbad” and “Arrested Development” fame, “Adventureland” opens by introducing us to James Brennan (Jesse Eisenberg) and his unraveling plans in the summer of ‘87. The awkward lothario and recent Oberlin College grad was looking forward to jet-setting through Europe before settling down in NYC for grad school at Columbia. With his dad’s job being downsized, Jesse can’t count on getting stroked a check for his travel and schooling. His vocab is too big to score a gig waiting tables and his biceps are too small to get him a manual labor position, so he finally accepts a summer job at Adventureland, a third-rate amusement park run by a zany married couple – SNL’s Kristen Wiig and Bill Hader. At the park, James meets his dream weaver in Em (Stewart), as well as a dorky sidekick (Martin Starr), the tight-jeaned resident tease (Margarita Levieva) and a 30-something maintenance man with a proclivity for bedding 17-year-olds (Ryan Reynolds). Along the way, love triangles and quadrilaterals emerge. Feelings are hurt, egos are made and trashed, and hormones rage. The movie is nothing like the trailer, which makes it look like an “American Pie” rip-off. We actually get to know our hero James, who had a better chance of getting to second base with a thesaurus than an actual girl until this momentous summer. (You will want to strangle, slap and eye-gouge James as he searches for his flirting mojo.) And the scripted banter is the stuff of real life arguments and shit-shooting, not the paint-b y-number dialogue you usually find cheesing up these movies. I hope Adventureland isn’t overlooked, especially if the marketing continues to push it like it’s a bad retro sitcom. It’s rare that a summer comedy can combine gratuitous raunch with candid windows into relationships that feel real, from the angst-riddled pick-up lines to the steamy make-up (and revenge) hook-ups. Adventureland could also be called "Noplotland," because it's more interested in seeing what happens when these people bump against each other. Forced together in a corndog-scented dump where none of them wants to be, they spend the summer making poor romantic choices and learning from them. Adventureland has a regretful tone, and that makes sense for a movie about a bunch of people hanging out with friends who — as in director Greg Mottola's "Superbad" — may not be their friends for much longer. Mottola, who also wrote Adventureland, doesn't have much visual style (OK, he has none), but his keen understanding of behavior makes up for it. "They don't like people like me where I'm from," says James, revealing a lot about himself in nine words. And when James tells troubled Em, "I think I see you a little differently than you see yourself," that's another subtle line that speaks volumes about the intelligence and frailties of both people. Who hasn't known someone they wanted to tell, "You're a better person than you think you are"? I liked Adventureland a lot, and I'd have loved it if it weren't for one hugely annoying thing, a thing I hesitate to specify because I'm afraid you'll obsess over it when you see the movie, just like I did. But here goes: Jesse Eisenberg needs to become aware. That he has an annoyingly consistent acting tic. Which is that he pauses for about three seconds. In the middle. Of every single line he says. It may just drive. You nuts. An hilaious 3 on my "Go See" scale. Not the best, but good for what it's worth.
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