Thursday, August 22, 2013

The Spectacular Now - 3 stars

Miles Teller (Footloose, Project X) and Shailene Woodley (The Descendants) star as Sutter and Aimee.  Sutter is a bit of a player.  He's the kind of guy who lives in the now.  He enjoys his life but doesn't worry too much about the future.  He's a high school senior with a bit of a drinking problem.  He breaks up with his girlfriend, gets drunk at a party, drives home, and wakes up on Aimee's lawn.  Amy is a nice, shy girl.  She doesn't have a boyfriend and is into science fiction. 

He starts hanging out with her, and at first he says he isn't interested in her.  When telling his friend about her, he says he's just helping her out, helping her build some confidence.  When his friend asks what happens if she falls in love with him, he says no, that won't happen.

They of course do fall in love, and their relationship is great for a while, until it isn't.  Even though Sutter is the life of the party and always seems to know what to do, that is just a facade to hide the pain and self loathing going on inside.  Things take a turn when they go to see his father in another town.  Sutter hasn't seen his father in years and reaches out to him, only to learn there is a good reason why his father isn't a part of his life.

The movie starts out kind of slow, like a lot of independant movies do.  But as it goes along, the characters started to grow on me.  The perormances are really good, and it doesn't follow the stereotypical teen romance story format.  Overall I enjoyed the movie.

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