Adventureland

Released: 2009

MPAA rating: R

Run time: 1:47

The original appeal of "Adventureland" was two-fold. First, the writer/director worked at Adventureland here on Long Island in his youth and this film was based on that experience. Second, there are some really solid comedy cast members including Kristen Wiig, Bill Hader and Ryan Reynolds. It was surprising to find that these "names" were really just supporting characters in a summer romance film. It was also surprising to see that this worked beautifully. Although "Adventureland" is a comedy and is certainly funny at times, it is also a very good coming of age story. James Brennan (Jesse Eisenberg) needs money for college, so he takes a summer job at the local amusement park, where he meets Em Lewin (Kristen Stewart of "Twilight" fame). He becomes smitten with her pretty quickly and the movie follows their developing romance/friendship over the course of the park's season. Kristen Wiig and Bill Hader provide comic relief as the couple who own the park and Ryan Reynolds helps fuel the story as the maintenance guy whose legend is that he "once played with Lou Reed". Eisenberg has the challenging job of carrying this movie as an unknown and pulls it off beautifully. He has a speaking cadence that is a combination of Woody Allen and Ben Stiller and definitely has you rooting for him. It is a warm, funny movie that sort of reminded me of "Say Anything". The only point of confusion for me was when Lou Reed's "Satellite of Love" played half way through the film, I thought that meant the movie was ending (I know, MAYBE one of my readers will get that reference).

Grade: B

Trailer: