The Way, Way Back Review – One of My Favourite Coming-of-Age Movies

Spoiler Warning: This review contains major spoilers, including details about Trent’s behaviour and the ending.

I’ve watched The Way, Way Back around ten times, and I’ve finally decided there’s no point pretending this is anything less than a 10/10 for me. I absolutely love this movie. I know what’s going to happen, I know the characters, I know how it ends, and somehow that final scene still makes me teary every single time. There are some great performances throughout the film, but for me Sam Rockwell and Liam James make this movie.

It’s funny, sad and incredibly warm, but underneath all of that is a story about what continually putting a young person down can do to their confidence — and what can happen when somebody else finally starts building them back up.

From a Six to a Three

The film introduces us to 14-year-old Duncan (Liam James) sitting alone in the rear-facing seat — the “way, way back” — of the family station wagon while travelling on holiday with his mother Pam (Toni Collette), her boyfriend Trent (Steve Carell) and Trent’s daughter Steph.

Trent asks Duncan how he rates himself on a scale of one to ten. Duncan says six. Trent tells him he’s a three.

What an absolute arsehole.

He dresses the conversation up as though he’s trying to motivate Duncan to improve himself, but it doesn’t feel motivational at all. It feels cruel and calculated. Pam doesn’t hear it, and that matters because Trent repeatedly behaves differently towards Duncan when she isn’t aware of what is happening. Duncan already lacks confidence, so the last thing this painfully shy 14-year-old needs is the adult man dating his mother privately telling him that he’s basically inadequate.

Steve Carell is fantastic in the role precisely because Trent is so different from many of the characters we associate with him. I couldn’t stand him, which means Carell did his job brilliantly.

Pam Isn’t Nearly As Happy As She’s Pretending

I found Pam frustrating at times because she doesn’t realise how badly Trent is treating Duncan, but I also felt sorry for her. She’s clearly trying to convince herself that she’s happy. Toni Collette does a great job of showing those little cracks underneath the surface. Pam wants the relationship with Trent to work and seems willing to overlook things because perhaps acknowledging them would mean admitting that this supposedly happy new chapter of her life isn’t actually very happy at all.

Then we discover that Trent is cheating on her with Joan (Amanda Peet). Duncan sees them kissing. The same man who lectures Duncan about improving himself and becoming a better person is sneaking around behind his mother’s back, and when confronted, Trent isn’t even particularly remorseful. The hypocrisy is staggering. No wonder Duncan hates him.

Then Duncan Discovers Water Wizz

And this is where the film becomes something special.

Duncan finds an old bicycle and ventures out by himself, eventually discovering the Water Wizz water park. There he meets Owen, played by the absolutely brilliant Sam Rockwell. Owen is almost the complete opposite of Trent. At first glance, he hardly looks like ideal father-figure material. He’s sarcastic, childish, constantly joking and doesn’t exactly give the impression of being the world’s most responsible manager.

But Owen notices Duncan. He talks to him, makes him laugh and, most importantly, doesn’t treat Duncan as though there’s something wrong with him. Eventually Duncan gets a job at Water Wizz and starts spending more and more time there, while his mother has absolutely no idea about the second life he’s building for himself.

Duncan Builds an Entire Life by Himself

I love this part of the movie. While Pam and the other adults are drinking, socialising and becoming caught up in their own relationship dramas, Duncan quietly builds an entire second life. He gets himself to Water Wizz, gets a job, makes friends and becomes part of the team.

Gradually, almost without noticing it himself, Duncan starts changing. But the film doesn’t suddenly turn him into some ridiculously confident Hollywood teenager. He’s still Duncan. He’s still awkward and still quiet. He’s simply beginning to realise that perhaps he isn’t the worthless “three” Trent made him feel like.

Eventually he becomes Employee of the Month. It’s such a contrast. At the beach house, Duncan is the miserable teenager nobody quite knows what to do with. At Water Wizz, people genuinely like him.

Owen Is Everything Trent Isn’t

This relationship is the heart of the movie for me. Sam Rockwell and Liam James are fantastic together. Owen gradually becomes the positive male influence Duncan desperately needs.

What’s lovely is that Owen doesn’t achieve this through endless inspirational speeches. He includes Duncan, gives him responsibility, jokes with him and treats him like somebody worth knowing. When Duncan finally tells Owen about Trent rating him a three, Owen immediately understands how damaging that was.

There’s a wonderful simplicity to their relationship: Trent spends the summer trying to convince Duncan that he isn’t good enough. Owen spends the summer showing him that he already is.

That’s The Way, Way Back for me.

Susanna Likes Duncan Before Duncan Likes Himself

I also really like Susanna (AnnaSophia Robb) because she’s different from the other teenagers around her. She isn’t particularly bothered about joining in with everything her friends are doing on the beach, and she makes a genuine effort to talk to Duncan even though trying to get a conversation out of him initially looks like bloody hard work.

And that’s important because Susanna shows an interest in Duncan before his confidence really develops. She isn’t suddenly interested because Water Wizz has transformed him into Mr Popular. She sees something in this painfully shy boy from the beginning, and their relationship is sweet precisely because it isn’t overdone.

Betty and the Brilliantly Confident Peter

Then there’s Betty (Allison Janney), who is flamboyant to say the least. She’s loud, inappropriate, frequently hilarious and seems perpetually embarrassed about her son Peter’s lazy eye.

The funny thing is that Peter doesn’t seem particularly bothered by it himself. He’s remarkably confident. I actually think there’s an interesting contrast between Peter and Duncan. Betty repeatedly draws attention to something about Peter that could potentially make him self-conscious, but Peter seemingly refuses to let it define him.

Duncan, meanwhile, has been made painfully insecure largely because the adults around him — particularly Trent — have helped convince him that he’s inadequate. Peter already possesses something Duncan has to discover: the confidence to be comfortable being himself.

Duncan Doesn’t Need Fixing

That’s probably one of my favourite messages in the film. Duncan doesn’t need to become somebody else. He doesn’t need Trent’s ridiculous programme of “self-improvement”, and he doesn’t need to become louder, cooler or more masculine.

He needs somebody to stop telling him he’s not good enough.

Owen provides that. So do the other people at Water Wizz. Susanna provides some of it too. Slowly we watch this withdrawn boy emerge from his shell.

That’s why Liam James’s performance works so well for me. Duncan’s transformation isn’t enormous or unbelievable. It’s in his posture, his expressions, his willingness to speak and his ability to joke. The difference between the Duncan sitting in the way, way back at the beginning and the Duncan working at Water Wizz is enormous — but he’s recognisably the same boy.

Pam Finally Discovers Her Son’s Secret World

Towards the end, Duncan desperately wants to return to Water Wizz before they leave. When he suddenly gets out of the car and runs back there, Pam follows him.

For the first time, she sees this entire world her son has created without her.

She discovers that Duncan works there. People know him. People like him. He belongs there. Owen knows a version of her son that she hasn’t really seen all summer.

I love that moment because Pam suddenly gets a glimpse of what Duncan has accomplished entirely by himself. While she was concentrating on Trent and trying to make her relationship work, her son was quietly finding somewhere he belonged. And I LOVE Owen telling Trent that he’s a friend of the three, because right there and then we see that Owen is just a sad bully who has lost his control over Duncan.

And Owen makes it clear to Pam that she’s got a great kid, and that makes me teary every single time, together with the final hug.

Not a three.

Not somebody who needs fixing.

A great kid.

That Ending Gets Me Every Bloody Time

Then comes the ending.

Everyone gets back into the station wagon. Duncan returns to the way, way back. We’re almost exactly where we started.

Except something has changed.

Pam climbs into the back and sits beside him.

That’s it. No enormous speech. No dramatic declaration. She just sits with her son.

And it’s perfect.

At the beginning of the film Duncan is physically and emotionally separated from his mother while Trent sits up front controlling everything. At the end, Pam chooses to sit beside Duncan.

For me, that little movement says everything.

She finally sees him.

And perhaps she’s finally seeing Trent properly too.

After everything Duncan has achieved without her knowledge, his mother is finally in his corner.

That’s why the ending affects me no matter how many times I’ve watched it.

My Verdict

There are probably technically “better” films than The Way, Way Back.

I don’t care.

If I’ve voluntarily watched a movie around ten times, still enjoy it and still become emotional at exactly the same ending despite knowing perfectly well what’s coming, what else am I supposed to give it?

Sam Rockwell and Liam James make this movie. Rockwell is hilarious, warm and effortlessly charismatic as Owen, while Liam James makes Duncan’s gradual transformation completely believable. Steve Carell also deserves enormous credit for making Trent such a pompous, vain, controlling and thoroughly unlikeable character. Toni Collette brings considerably more depth to Pam than simply portraying her as the oblivious mother, while the supporting characters — from Susanna and Peter to the completely bonkers Betty — give the film the warmth that keeps bringing me back to it.

Ultimately though, this is Duncan and Owen’s movie. It’s about a kid who’s been told he’s a three finding people who make him realise that somebody else’s cruel assessment never determined his worth in the first place.

I absolutely love it.

Funny, emotional and endlessly rewatchable. Sam Rockwell and Liam James are outstanding in a coming-of-age film about confidence, belonging and finally finding people who appreciate you for exactly who you are.