The impact of some films gets better the longer you think
about them. My annoyance with this one has
grown the longer I think about it.
The Spectacular Now sounded like it
would be an uplifting drama. Not.
I thought Woody Allen’s Blue Jasmine was tragic,
but Director James Ponsoldt’s The Spectacular Now seemed even more
tragic, dealing with the sad plight of teens, who hadn’t yet begun to live
their lives.
What the two films have in common is spectacular performances
by the leading women, Cate Blanchett in Blue Jasmine and the fabulous
Shailene Woodley (The Descendants) in this film.
What they don’t have in common is a brilliant screenplay. Here it seems a life drama was written by
writers who haven’t yet begun to have lives.
A second problem was the worst miscasting since Count
Vronsky in Anna Karenina with the film’s mail lead. It’s not that Miles Teller is a bad
actor. On the contrary. The problem is that he is not believable in
this role of Sutter Kiely, an 18-year old loser, who appeals to Cassidy (Brie
Larson), the hottest babe in his class, and, then, to Woodley’s Aimee Finecky, who,
though an inexperienced young woman, is very smart and has a clear vision of
what she wants from the future. Why these
two young women would be attracted to a pimple-faced, alcoholic party boy
defies my wide suspension of disbelief, especially when his male classmates have
him rightly pegged as a joke.
Despite this fact, Woodley’s honest portrayal keeps the
audience totally focused on her and hoping the frog next to her might somehow
be transformed into a worthy prince.
Unfortunately, that’s not to be.
Then, there’s the misguided title. There’s nothing spectacular in the young
creep’s or his estranged father’s concept of the “now.” In fact, they and whoever came up with this
title denigrate the positive philosophy of living in the moment.
Those who are readers of my reviews know that I don’t,
usually, give away too much of the plot unless the film is really bad or, as in
this case, is truly annoying.
So, here’s a Spoiler Alert… The writers/director, here, pull off a nasty
trick on members of the audience, making us believe Aimee has been killed and,
then…while I was wondering whether to leave now that the only character worth
watching was gone… after a few scenes lasting several minutes where Sutter
talks under ominous music to a doctor and then is back in school, casually bring
Aimee back with just an injured arm. Not
cool. And, there were murmurs of, “What
the f…?”
The film ends with one of those phony redemptions where
the uneducated drunkard may be on the mend and goes to find Aimee, who had,
smartly, moved on. Better he should have
found the main character from Frances Ha and hooked up with her so
they could have lived lives of mediocrity than, tragically, attempting to pull Aimee
down to his level.
I give The Spectacular Now a 2 out of 5,
but Shailene Woodley gets a 4+ for a star performance that, at times, shows the
power of Jennifer Lawrence in Silver Lining Playbook. She has a great future ahead of her and
should be watched by aspiring actresses, who want to learn how to rise above
poor material.