Opening at the ArcLight Hollywood this Friday is Adult Beginners, an adult-aimed comedy about struggling thirty-somethings trying to embrace and make sense of newfound adult living. It’s light-hearted fare and an easy watch that will effortlessly entertain young audiences with its humor and heart. Just don’t go into it expecting it to add anything new to the genre.
The film stars Nick Kroll as Jake, a young jerky entrepreneur seen living the good life in a swanky Manhattan pad, celebrating the launch of his promising new tech company that is set to make him and all his donor friends rich. That is, until he learns of a defect in the device that leads to the folding of his up-start, sinking his along with all of his friends’ investments, and deeming the last three years of his life a waste and forcing him to reevaluate a new life plan.
With no other options, Jake leaves New York to temporarily move in with his estranged and very pregnant sister Justine (Rose Byrne), brother-in-law (Bobby Cannavale) and three-year-old nephew. As a Big City transplant in the small-town suburbs, Jake prolongs his stay, becoming their “manny,” looking after the kid with the hopes of grounding himself and figuring out next step. At this point, the movie leans into the comic hijinks of seeing Jake’s self-centered sleaze-ball so hilariously taking care of the kid ensuing in the sort of generalities of a kid being looked after by a bigger kid that you might expect.
Adult Beginners works fine in the gimmicky laughs of Kroll as Jake so ineptly skilled at taking care of a kid. He wheels the kid to the park in a suitcase-as-stroller and hits on the single mothers. It’s all fine, quippy banter, but the movie is more or less saved by its complimenting and balanced out other half, the more warm and honest reflections and admissions of young married and family life, which Jake is forced to confront with his sister, as well as with her and her husband’s rocky moments.
If you decide to take the plunge with Adult Beginners, just know that you won’t be leaving the shallow end – but you might end up still having a little fun anyways.
There are whiffs of the Apatow-styled man-child hero that is forced to grow up in an age of stunted maturity epidemic that has grown to define the generation, but there is more of a connection to the 2011 feature Jeff Who Lives at Home and the HBO series Togetherness, both of which were made by the film’s producers, Jay and Mark Duplass (Duplass Brothers Productions. It’s a watered down version of this Duplassian comedy, as half-laughs are given the same treatment as its dramatics, involving the expecting of children, infidelity, and commitment to family, that makes the film a very lukewarm experience comparatively.
Kroll and friends work as a strong, three-piece dynamic, in a film that certainly needed each of its leads to be able to navigate the waters between playfully humorous and seriously relatable to earn this film’s keep. Kroll as Jake dials in his slacker charms that make his character’s story, about his ignoring of his sister and ailing mother while he was off making his dreams come true, that much more effective. Cameos by familiar-faced comedians Joel McHale and Jane Krakowski add a further touch of comedic do-gooding.
Applaudable strides are given to Kroll who pushes himself here in more dramatic moments than he has in any other opportunity. For fans of the comedian’s signature Alt-style comedic stylings, they’ll only be treated to the film’s opening sequence: a fake commercial ad for his company “Minndsi,” in which he’s able to use the weird format to best serve his signature “Tim and Eric” chops, however briefly.
In the end, Adult Beginners isn’t exactly proof of what a terrific low-budget festival-style film is, but what one inspired by those is. Its simultaneous meandering and heavy-handedness could come off more dissuading to others, such as its forced title into the story: “Adult Beginners,” as it turns out, is a swimming class for the age-pushing crowd (“Get your feet wet!” is on the brochure and an almost eye-rolling metaphor), and wouldn’t you know – Jake and Justine were both never taught how to swim. Suffice it to say, the film’s emotional climax centers around embracing family by reconciling differences, and jumping into the pool.
If you decide to take the plunge with Adult Beginners, just know that you won’t be leaving the shallow end – but you might end up still having a little fun anyways.
Adult Beginners is Rated R for language and some drug use.
