Adventureland

First Hit: This early adult film was easy to watch and its acting made it enjoyable.

Some early adult films feature a lot of horror scenes, others portray silliness, but this one attempted to bring some current themes into play, like job loss and the reality of having to make one’s own way in life.

Jesse Eisenberg plays James a young man who has been fully supported by his parents during his college years and lives in an idealized belief of how life will be for him. Reality hits home when his parents tell him they cannot give him any money for a summer trip to Europe and that they will not be able to pay for his graduate schooling at Columbia.

In fact they tell him he has to work during the summer. We watch him apply to jobs and with no job history, he cannot even get a job at a restaurant. He ends up working as a carney at Adventureland. At Adventureland he meets a cast of interesting other misfits including Emily (played by Kristen Stewart).

Emily has had a difficult family life, drinks too much, is sullen and acts out by having an affair with a married guy who perpetuates a rumor that he is a budding musician and once played with Lou Reed. James is still a virgin and has not had much luck with girls and he falls completely in love with Emily.

The film tells this story in an easy going way but does fail in many ways to add depth to key characters.

Eisenberg is gentle, complete and effective as the somewhat shy entitled young man who has to start coming to grips with the realities of life. Stewart is, yet again, a sullen, quiet, shy girl who is the attention of the male lead. She is good and fairly compelling to watch on screen, and I’d like to see if she can play something else as a way to cement her acting credentials. Gregg Mottola directed this film evenly and with a sense of giving the audience a slice of real life.

Overall: I enjoyed watching this film and it’s sense of realism as portrayed by the actors, especially Eisenberg.

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