Review of The Spectacular Now (2013) by Robert H — 12 Oct 2014

While it has some degree of authenticity and an excellent performance by Miles Teller, his character is ultimately too unlikeable in a movie that aims to inspire. Miles Teller plays Sutter Keeley, a high school senior with some major issues.

Chief among them is his reluctance to think about anything but the present, with no regard for his future. He's also kind of a douchebag and a budding alcoholic. Fresh off of breaking up with his girlfriend (for those reasons), he rebounds with a quiet girl named Aimee (Shailene Woodley).

During their time together, they begin to rub off on each other, although it's more onto her than him. Some of the moments between them were genuinely sweet, although the water is muddied a bit when he tries to get back with his ex.

There's also an absentee father in the mix, and who Sutter is quickly shaping up to be like. Basically, he is a person at odds with everyone in his life and the whole gist of the movie is that he needs to realize that he's better than he thinks he is.

The only problem with that is that when the change does come it doesn't feel natural at all. In fact, he's such an unlikeable person that it's surprising that he's gotten through to at all.

Through all of this, Shailene Woodley does an admirable job as the girlfriend who sees the potential within him, but even she ends up getting used as a plot device (and a rather crass, shocking one at that).

Ultimately I enjoyed it more than most YA novel adaptations thanks to them not sanitizing the material for a PG-13 rating, but it still doesn't change the fact that (to me) the ending should have been more impactful than it was.

There were also a number of occasions where I caught myself rolling my eyes at some of the dialogue I was hearing. It's at the upper end of teen romances, but honestly that's not saying too much.