Directed by Greg Mottola, Adventureland is an amiable indie romantic comedy starring Jesse Eisenberg and Kristen Stewart. James Brennan’s (Eisenberg) hopes to visit Europe after graduating from college are dashed when his parents suffer a career setback. He must now work at Adventureland, a local amusement park, to help pay for his upcoming grad school tuition. This is where he meets Emily Lewin (Stewart) whom he quickly in falls in love with and you guessed it, summer romance ensues with your usual mix of bliss, pain, betrayals, misunderstandings and what not. Enough said…

There isn’t much technically wrong with Adventureland, Mottola choose to distance the movie from Superbad which he directed a couple years ago by using significantly less repetitive gross-out comedy or other easy gags that we are all so familiar with by now. The movie is slow-building and more sentimental than what you would expect from the trailer. However, by taking all the cheap comedy out, the movie felt a bit empty and bland and didn’t get me as emotionally involved as it should. This is by no means the actors’ fault who acquit themselves with solid performances. Eisenberg plays his usual awkward self and does it well enough while Kristen Stewart shows some acting chops which were sorely missing in Twilight. Stewart desperately needs to expand her range outside the disillusioned girl with a problem she has typecast herself in. Bill Hader and Kristen Wiig provide most of the easy laughs, playing the unhinged park owners while Ryan Reynolds appears in the movie as the married park’s repairman whom all the girls swoon over and is likeable enough in a thankless role. The movie features effective use of music from the 80′s to set the mood of certain scenes. At the end of the day though, the movie feels rushed even though it feels slow. The movie doesn’t focus enough on the two main characters and waste screen time on too many side characters that are just not that interesting.

Adventureland is a gentle but fairly average coming-of-age teen movie with a restrained amount of comedy only. Nevertheless, the movie is elevated by a solid cast and a nice soundtrack so there it is:

C+

Note: R-Rated (I don’t know why?) , 107 min