'Adventureland:' Coming of age, and hating it

With luck, "Adventureland" could go on to be a classic in the mold of 1967's "The Graduate." Most likely, though, there's not that much luck in the world.

"Adventureland" is far better than any other recent youth movie, complete with believable slices of life, but it is up against some formidable marketing mistakes.

For one thing, its title suggests that maybe it's a Disney thing. It is not.

Also, it is written and directed by Greg Mottola, who had the same duties on "Superbad," the Judd Apatow-produced, hit gross-out comedy that leaned heavily on one-liners about body parts, drugs and other cheap topics for shock and laughter.

There was every indication that Mottola wanted to be another Apatow. In this movie, he is better than that - sweet yet hip.

"Adventureland," like "The Graduate," concerns a college grad making his first forays into the real world. He wants study journalism at grad school and become a writer. Also like "The Graduate," this film makes sly digs at the hypocrisy and social climbing of adults.

The title refers to a tacky amusement park in Pittsburgh that is the only place the grad, James, can get a summer job. His friends are all going to Europe for the summer, but his dad's downgrade at work means he doesn't have the money to go. Still, he plans to share an apartment with a rich friend when he returns to grad school. In the meantime, he works at a game booth where, in his first day, he commits the unpardonable sin of letting one of the customers win the top prize - a giant panda.

Still a virgin, he falls for Em, a pretty but perhaps neurotic girl who works two booths away. She's sweet but obviously not as virginal as James. Most of all she's hardened by the fact that her father has married a "socially obsessed witch" who is concerned only with impressing others with clothes and such. She's bitter about the adult world.

Our grad is smitten. He doesn't know that she's having an affair with the older, mysterious repairman at the park - a has-been musician who also happens to be married.

Kristen Stewart is believably edgy as the girl - and much more energetic than the robotlike character she played in the hit "Twilight." Her job there was merely to be infatuated with a vampire. It's nice to learn that she actually is alive.

Jesse Eisenberg is likable as James, if a bit too childish.

Ryan Reynolds is miscast as the park repairman. Reynolds will soon star as Sandra Bullock's leading man and has been on the cover of "Men's Health." He looks like no faded musician who might be employed repairing rides in a run-down amusement park. In fact, the triangle is a bit off kilter because you can't blame Em for making the wrong choice when he is the wrong choice.

An amusing supporting character is Lisa P., the super-hot disco girl whom everyone wants but no one seems able to get. Even she is humanized when we learn that her flamboyance is mostly show.

"Humanized" is the key word. Unlike the usual potty-mouthed denizens of these movies, these characters resemble human beings from this planet.

If "Adventureland" is given long enough to grow in the theaters, kids and folks who were once kids might have time to pass the word around that it is a sweet, but still cool, slice of life about approaching maturity. One hopes it will get that chance.