3 1/2 stars
“The Spectacular Now” is not your average teen movie. The trailer is ambiguous as far as plot and the actors looked kind of familiar but not noteworthy. Was it a high school romance? A coming-of-age film? A tragic comedy? Even after watching the movie, I am still asking these questions.
The film follows the story of Sutter Keely (Miles Teller) who is always the life of the party. He cares about having fun, getting drunk and most of all, living in the now. Life is great, despite the fact that he doesn’t have a father, his mother is keeping secrets and he is currently failing geometry as a senior. After a drunken evening, Sutter wakes up in the neighborhood of shy Aimee Finecky (Shailene Woodley).
While Sutter refuses to look past the now, Aimee lives for the future. But, as Sutter gets closer to her, he realizes that she has no choice but to be shy after being domineered by nearly everyone in her life. Sutter creates a plan to “save” Aimee.
There are no makeover montages in the film (thankfully). Sutter simply dates Aimee and introduces her to the “finer” things in life (mainly whisky in a personalized flask).
As Sutter forces Aimee to confront her fears in life, he has no choice but to face his as well. But as high school comes to a close, Sutter may not like what he finds out about himself and will do anything not to drag Aimee down with him into his “not so spectacular” now.
Scott Neustadter, known for writing “(500) Days of Summer,” infuses some of the same stylistic writing qualities into “The Spectacular Now.”
For those who have seen the 2009 film, it is important to note that both movies share the quality of wanting so much to be a love story, but not quite getting there.
“The Spectacular Now” has no definite conclusions or perfectly placed epiphanies. It just has real heart and real consequences.
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