Review : ‘Adventureland’. Monotone, But Funny
In this new comedy co-starring the versatile “Twilight” star Kristen Stewart. Character, James Brennan (Jesse Eisenberg) graduates from college.His parents supposedly owe him a vacation trip to Europe and financial help with an apartment in New York for when he goes to grad school. This is not the case,though as his father has been demoted at his job making way less money than he previously did before. So, young James is forced to get a summer job at the local “Adventureland” amusement park. While he’s there, he meets a cute girl named, Em Lewin (Kristen Stewart). She seems to like him ,and they awkwardly hit it off. But there’s much more to Em than James is aware of as she has issues with her parents,and is sleeping with the amusement park maintenance man,Mike Connell (Ryan Reynolds) who is also married.
Em and James continue to eventually grow closer as they hang out more,but she still sleeps around with Mike on the side during the whole summer. James starts to fall in love with her rather quickly,but for her,not so much. Unfortunately,when she starts to develop real feelings for him, James finds out about her summer affair with Mike O’Connell. James tells another girl who works at the amusement park about it which causes word to spread. Em, upset about it,eventually quits and heads back to New York for college. James feeling like an idiot,goes to New York to hunt her down. They appear to make up and live happily ever after.
My take : I thought the movie was pretty funny but in an odd sort of monotone way meaning the jokes didn’t really hit hard. You had to really follow the film to get the funny out of it. There were some obvious funny moments. There’s one character named Tommy Frigo (Matt Bush) who acted like he was four years old,and would always punch James in the groin. Then they had this really pretty girl who would always break into dance when the music played. It was strangely hilarious. I liked Kristen Stewart in this movie. She is really versatile. I think she could play most any role given to her. I didn’t think about “Twilight” once when I watched it.Ryan Reynolds was good as Mike Connell as it was very funny to see him give advice to James about Em when he was secretly sleeping with her behind his back. I thought the movie was pretty original in it’s delivery, and the storyline made good enough sense. Overall I thought the movie was quietly funny and entertaining.
Grade : B +
Movie : Adventureland
Release Date : April 3, 2009
Studio : Miramax Films
Cast : Jesse Eisenberg, Ryan Reynolds, Kristen Stewart, Martin Starr, Paige Howard, Kristen Wiig, Bill Hader, Margarita Levieva
