Unlike one of Crowe's movies, this one doesn't contain a particularly memorable soundtrack, but that's okay, since that isn't what the appeal of The Spectacular Now is all about. This is a character and emotion-driven movie through and through. The first two thirds of this movie are light-hearted and follow a familiar rhythm (hard-partying boy meets nice girl, thinks of her as just another fling, then a real attraction develops), but the final 30 minutes will form most viewers' lasting memories. The territory that director James Ponsoldt's film dives into is bleak, unpredictable, and riveting. The effect is similar to that of Robert Zemeckis' Cast Away, where the final, post-island segment forms a complete drama. That's equally the case here.
Sutter Keely (Miles Teller) is a popular 18-year-old senior student, but graduating into the next phase of life means little to him. He's the kind of guy who wishes he could be 18 forever and consistently finds ways to get around answering tough questions about his future. His reluctance to do so causes his girlfriend, Cassidy (Brie Larson), to dump him for the class President. But with or without a girlfriend, Sutter still has his way with the ladies, and one day, after waking up from passing out drunk on a stranger's lawn, he meets the shy Aimee Finicky (Shailene Woodley) and offers to help her on her paper route in exchange for helping him find his car. Sutter insists to his friends that his and Aimee's friendship is just platonic, but as the two spend more time together, attraction and respect inevitably grows. They learn from one another, and once Sutter discovers his absentee father's whereabouts, he asks Aimee to accompany him on a road trip.
Until the events of that road trip transpire, The Spectacular Now gets an impressive amount of the details right when it comes to teenage relationships. The filmmakers understand Sutter's mindset, how he can be smart and verbose in social situations yet lost at sea in the classroom, and how he goes from bragging about a potential conquest in Aimee to developing a more respectful attitude. And although the movie is presented from his perspective, Aimee undergoes noticeable growth as well. She comes out of her wallflower shell, learns to speak up a little more, and becomes more outgoing. The sex scene between the two, while not graphic, is presented with the proper tone and feel. And while Sutter's ex-girlfriend looms just outside the frame of his current relationship, the character of Cassidy is not treated as a villain to generate unnecessary conflict.
The Spectacular Now becomes a significantly different movie during its final third. We learn facts about Sutter's background and family that not only give us a better understanding of who he is, but hit home with certain viewers who have experienced similar family drama. The filmmakers wisely don't reveal everything as to why a certain character made the choice he did, but enough so that we can fill in the blanks. During this period, The Spectacular Now's trajectory and ending point become uncertain; a welcome sign for any movie. It ups the ante and turns a relatively standard (albeit a very smart) teenage romance story into something deeper and more resonant.
Miles Teller and Shailene Woodley are so natural in their roles that, upon leaving the screening, I only remembered them as Sutter and Aimee. That's a point that can't be understated; how often do we find ourselves describing a movie and referring to a character by the actor's name? That won't happen here. Woodley in particular could be on the verge of a breakout; she got her start on the series Secret Life of the American Teenager, delivered an extraordinary supporting turn in The Descendants, and could be playing key roles in two franchises (Mary Jane Watson in The Amazing Spiderman series and the lead in the adaptation of the young-adult novel Divergent). Jennifer Jason Leigh delivers excellent supporting work as Sutter's mother, who has a strained relationship with her son and refuses to let him know the whereabouts of his father. And Kyle Chandler, appropriately unkempt-looking, has a small but crucial role.
A clever motif in the film, that of Sutter choosing how to answer a question on a college admissions letter, eventually results in him directly relating to the audience what he has learned about how dangerous "living in the now" can be. To most adults, that may seem like a trite life-lesson, but it's a breakthrough to a teenager, and the film gets the point across without seeming preachy. The Spectacular Now is yet another 2013 entry that proves once again that you don't need astronomical budgets or megawatt stars to entertain audiences. Deliver a finely-tuned, well-written story and push all the right emotional buttons, and you can't go wrong.
Rating: ***1/2 (out of ****)
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