On Exploring the Darkness in a Summer Film with The Way Way Back

The Way Way Back has been promoted as the perfect summer movie, heart warming and impossible to dislike. These are accurate labels. The film does capture a sense of summer in a very positive way and the affirming message and quirky but relatable characters are hard to dislike. However, The Way Way Back is also unchallenging to audiences and to its own characters. It lives in the sun and avoids the darkness of the characters that is only addressed in a surface way. Steve Carrell’s stepfather is an unpleasant man, but the darkness in his personality – the cheating, the bullying, and the insecurity – is never explored in much detail. The alcoholism of the adults and the depression that is clearly present is brushed over. This is of course all done on purpose. The aim of writers/directors Nat Faxon and Jim Rash was not to create a difficult, challenging film, but a feel good piece of cinema. Yet, The Way Way Back may have been more memorable if they had explored the darkness.