It’s the summer of 1987 and young James Brennan (Jesse Eisenberg) has the world at his fingertips. He just graduated college, is set to take his dream trip across Europe and has a spot lined up for him at Columbia graduate school. Everything is looking great.
Only a few hours after his commencement, though, his parents lay on the hard news — they won’t be able to pay for his trip. His father has been forced to take a position with a significantly lower salary, and since James has no money saved away, he is forced to get a summer job instead of backpacking across Europe.
Lacking any kind of experience, James is turned down by an assortment of jobs and finds that there is only one place that will take him — the local amusement park, Adventureland.
Landing the job from childhood friend and supreme goofball Frigo (Matt Bush), James meets a variety of characters equally as interesting as his old comrade. After being inducted into the Adventureland family by being handed a tee-shirt by park manager Bobby (Bill Hader) and his offbeat wife Paulette (Kristen Wiig), James takes his position at one of the park’s game booths, where he meets Joel (Martin Starr). The two quickly spark a friendship as Joel shows James the ropes.
The job seems to be going fine for James, as there is only one real rule — whatever you do, don’t let anyone win a giant panda. With his luck, though, two men try to con him out of the elusive prize and when he refuses to give up the stuffed animal, one of the thugs flashes a knife at him. Before the incident escalates any further, the laid-back Em (Kristen Stewart) swoops in and hands the panda over.
After possibly saving his life, Em and James start to see more of each other and a relationship blossoms. While James jumps right into things, Em isn’t sure what she wants. She likes James but always seems to crawl back to her affair with the married park mechanic Connell (Ryan Reynolds). Once everything catches up and word gets out, though, things begin to crumble.
“Adventureland” is being marketed as “from the director who brought you ‘Superbad,’” and the trailers are packaged together to make it seem like the same type of comedy. The fact is, though, that this film is nothing like “Superbad.” The only similarity is that it shares a director in Greg Mottola. But unlike “Superbad” — which was written by Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg of the Judd Apatow crowd — “Adventureland” is written by Mottola himself. It is a film with small bits of comedy but overall is a dramatic coming-of-age story. That being said, it succeeds perfectly in that area.
The cast as a whole is wonderful. Jesse Eisenberg and Kristen Stewart steal the spotlight with their spot-on interaction and emotional ups and downs. While I thought from the trailers that Eisenberg was just a stand-in for a role that Michael Cera probably turned down, that couldn’t have been further from the truth.
Martin Starr is fantastic as the nerdy sidekick — almost reprising his role from the short-lived series “Freaks and Geeks” — and newcomer Matt Bush is surprisingly hilarious as the immature childhood pal who loves nothing more than to punch his buddies in the genitals.
Bill Hader and Kristen Wiig — both of Saturday Night Live fame — bring a lot of comic relief as the quirky park managers and Ryan Reynolds, while possibly being miscasted in his role, did a solid job as the unfaithful but somehow lovable mechanic.
“Adventureland” is not the gut-busting comedy that the previews make it out to be. It is a subdued dramatic comedy at its finest — a story of loss and misery with humorous moments and a happy ending.