Shailene Woodley anf Miles Teller (A24)Sutter Keely (Miles Teller) sits at a banquet table on prom night, watching his classmates out on the dance floor. With his date (Shailene Woodley) at his side, he smiles to himself, saying to nobody in particular, “I love all of you!” This happens midway through The Spectacular Now, James Ponsoldt’s adaptation of the coming-of-age novel by Tim Tharp. The film’s tone is perfect, beautifully photographed and with sensitive performances from young leads who look like real, ordinary people. The movie is watchable and, eventually, moving. But the script by Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber short-changes the characters, creating such ordinary people that they are leached of most personality.
I love the idea of Sutter’s prom night epiphany. Observing from a distance, he appreciates the love and friendship of his community. But at the same time, he keeps his peeps at an emotional distance, with feelings of unworthiness and self-loathing masked by teenage bacchanal and the goofy persona he maintains through most of the film, and, we presume, his life until now. In a better movie, it would be a great, crucial scene. But the epiphany is written, not earned.
It’s not the actors’ fault. Neustadter and Weber were also responsible for the precious, self-conscious (500) Days of Summer, which I hated. I am a sucker for coming-of-age movies and can be pretty forgiving of rom-coms, but its quirks were simply decorative, Zooey Deschanel’s personality reduced to bitchiness and Ringo. A glance at Tharp’s source makes me think the screenwriters smoothed out Sutter’s personality — he reads like even more of a dick in the book — but Aimee (Woodley), the nice girl love interest who wakes him up after one drunken night, isn’t given much personality other than a cursory interest in anime.
Sutter and Aimee kind of meet cute, but their first encounter is also an actual, literal wake-up call. She finds Sutter passed out on a lawn along the paper route she covers for her overbearing mother. She wakes him up to the possibility of life, and he wakes something up in her too as they push each other in new directions outside of their comfort zones. If the characters finally develop and grow, it is thanks to the actors more than the script, but everything comes together in a final act that packs a thoroughly earned emotional wallop.
The set up is sluggish and flat, free of typical coming-of-age movie excesses (Teller plays essentially the same person in 21 and Over), but the emotional cues take some time to register, much as Sutter takes some time to face life. The supporting cast is inconsistent. In a nod to another generation’s teen comedies, Jennifer Jason Leigh plays Sutter’s emotionally distant mother. Leigh was once a fine if hammy actress, but any expressiveness in her face has fallen victim to years of bad plastic surgery, and the cautionary vanity signified by her damaged mouth distracts from a movie that otherwise takes pains to be real. Much better is Kyle Chandler as Sutter’s geographically distant father, a pivotal character that sends the plot careening toward its conclusion.
The title The Spectacular Now suggests living in the moment, but it’s not just a call for spontaneity. The characters must face a spectacularly difficult now and stop avoiding life for later. The Spectacular Now is a good coming-of-age movie, but a better script could have made it a great one.
Screenwriter Michael H. Weber will appear for a Q&A on Friday, August 9 after the 5:30 show at the Angelika Mosaic.
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The Spectacular Now
Directed by James Ponsoldt
Written by Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber
With Miles Teller, Shailene Woodley, Kyle Chandler, Jennifer Jason Leigh
Rated R for alcohol use, language and some sexuality – all involving teens
Opens today at Landmark E Street Cinema, Landmark Bethesda Row, and Angelika Mosaic
