Adventureland is one of the most consistently funny, consistently well written, consistently well acted and consistently appealing movies I’ve seen in a very long time. Don’t let the TV ads fool you. They may hype the fact that Adventureland comes to you courtesy of the director of Superbad and they may even want you to believe the two films are similar, but that couldn’t be further from the truth. Adventureland is a better, more mature film in every way, retaining the heart and tenderness of the former film, but jettisoning its vulgarity.

Drawing off of his own experiences as an employee of the real-life Adventureland in Long Island, New York, writer/director Greg Mottola moves the action to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and replicates himself in the form of James Brennan (Jesse Eisenberg), a recent college graduate who has plans to tackle journalism at Columbia after a summer spent abroad in Europe. That is until his father’s job situation changes and his parents (Wendie Malick and Jack Gilpin) inform him they can no longer subsidize his trip. Despondent, the brainiac is forced to take a degrading minimum-wage job at a local amusement park. Imagining the worst, James is surprised instead to meet a bevy of fascinating people, especially Em (Kristen Stewart), the somewhat sullen girl who works across from him.

Much of Adventureland takes place at the amusement park where we watch the summer play out in an endless string of days spent placating obnoxious children and nights spent drinking and getting high. Set in 1987, the film uses a terrific soundtrack to prey on our nostalgia for yesteryear, and should remind you of the very best John Hughes movies. These disaffected youths may work in an amusement park but they are just starting to realize that the scariest rides are just outside the gate, in the real world.

James is an unlikely, passive hero. A college-aged virgin, James is an unabashed intellectual who somehow avoids being a complete bore. He’s great with books but not with real life. He’s not a nerd, per se, he just lacks the exposure to a world that doesn’t involve textbooks or Trivial Pursuit. Eisenberg plays him with crystalline timing, reciting Mottola’s dry humor with his own interpretive starch. Em is the one who gives him that exposure, and while Stewart is caught playing her usual role — morose and sullen — she has enough moments in which she breaks out of that shell and we can see why James finds her so attractive. And when she begins falling apart by inches, even going so far as to betray James’ affections in a love triangle he isn’t even aware of, we buy the grace he shows her because the script — consistently hilarious and unexpectedly moving — has earned it. The nerd gets the girl and we buy every minute of it.

Adventureland is a coming of age love story that is funny without being coarse and youthful without being juvenile. Sure, there are the usual pursuits of sex, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll, but they are secondary to the relationships these co-workers form. Charming and tender, Adventureland ends with consummation and promise, exactly how you’d expect an unforgettable summer to wind down.

© Copyright 2009 Brandon Fibbs. All rights reserved.