Film review: The Way Back ****

That pretty much wraps up The Way Way Back in that it is the overwhelming theme of the piece. Yet the setting – a water park – and the impressive cast (Steve Carell, Toni Colette, Sam Rockwell, Alison Janney and Amanda Peet) make this one more than just a formulaic flick.

Duncan is the kid reluctantly holidaying with his sister, his mother and mom’s new boyfriend. Mom Pam (Colette) is desperate to please overbearing Trent (Carell) which means Duncan (Liam James) is left to his own devices. He finds friendship with water park manager Owen (Rockwell), a fast-talking rascal and eternal child who sees potential in this awkward kid. Soon Duncan has a job and emerges from his shell, just as Trent reveals his true colours. A heartfelt crowd-pleaser of a film, The Way Way Back is packed with comments on heartache, loyalty, marital fidelity, maturity, juvenilia and how not to behave around girls.

It is also courageous enough to present Duncan and his journey as the core of the film, leaving Carell (in a straight part as a snide bully), Colette, Janney and Peet to fill out the back story. And it is here that the cheering begins. Writing/directing team Nat Faxon and Jim Rash present the adults as immature, overgrown kids desperately in need of a reality check. Duncan is left to find his own way. And he does.

If the various threads are too neatly tied together at the end of this little summertime drama, then it is an acceptable conclusion to a plausible tale.

Throughout it is enlivened by Rockwell’s surrogate father – a role he falls into via kinship before realising vicariously that the boy’s travails might also be his own.