Review of The Way Way Back (2013) by Louise D — 16 May 2014

This coming of age comedy/ drama depicts a familiar situation, involving a shy, reclusive child (with parental difficulties), against a boystrous, cocksure step dad. This is evident very early on in the film, although it seems to excessively linger on this point by constantly showing Duncan on the edge of conversations and loitering uncomfortably. It was odd seeing Carell depart so drastically from the type of character that he normally plays, and whilst not being funny, actually managed to portray a character that the audience would dislike well. The scenes at the waterpark are perhaps the best of a bad bunch, particularly those involving the laid back manager. The jokes however are obvious and cringy; for example the whole asking scandily clad girls to hold whilst at the top of the slide.

Overall a relatively easy watch, with a somewhat charming storyline. However a real lack of jokes, crappy use of greenscreen, painfully corny dancing scenes and an underwhelming conclusion led it to become very boring, very quickly. If you have recently purchased this, I suggest that you quickly take it 'way way back' to wherever it came from.