On the surface Adult Beginners looks like an addition to the Apatow stable of adult drama/comedies, which tend to err more towards the comedy. This Is 40, Knocked Up and Young Adult spring to mind. They typically play on an insecurity or bump that hits us during our adult lives. And while Adult Beginners does that, it does so with less of the coarse humor. While still providing laughs, it uses a great cast who work well together to tell a story that will strike a chord with many people faltering on their journey through adulthood.
Nick Kroll is Jake, a tech entrepreneur who on the verge of launching his big concept “Minds I”, a Google glass like device. When a manufacturer fails to deliver, the project collapses and takes his and many investors’ money with it. With nothing left he flees New York and returns to his family home in the suburbs, now inhabited by his sister Justine (Rose Byrne), her husband Danny (Bobby Cannavale) and their son Teddy.
While wallowing in his misery, Jake begins babysitting Teddy as a way of contributing to the household. As the months roll by the suburban lifestyle, weight of failure, and an awareness of issues between Justine and Danny, take their toll as he tries to figure a way to begin his life again. All the while his selfish instincts affect those around him.
Adult Beginners delivers everything you’d expect from a film about an underdeveloped adult. The trials of balancing a family with a career, neglect of siblings, the emotional baggage from their own childhood, it all gets drawn out and examined. It’s a very well made film that carries a more melancholic air than the features from Apatow and Co., which sets it apart. There are small touches littered through the film that will resonate with anyone dealing with failure or the stresses of family. The quieter moments seem more fitting for an indie feature and time is taken to allow the core characters to interact and show their familiarity. Of course it is littered throughout with humor, snide comments, amusing sibling banter and more adult jibes too. The drama and comedy are well balanced, making Adult Beginners both touching and entertaining in equal measure.
Nick Kroll, who also produced and wrote the story, shows he is more than capable of taking the lead in a film. He wisely uses his dry, acerbic qualities for laughs rather than his coarser side, although that does peep out at times. Byrne continues to show off her talents, although I’m looking forward to the day she really pushes herself with a film choice. And Cannavale is note perfect as the flawed but loving husband and father. Much of the film is spent with these three and they mesh very nicely into a malfunctioning family unit.
There really is not much to fault in Adult Beginners other than its lack of originality. It hits pretty much every note you’d expect from a film of this nature but does it so smoothly it’s hard to be overly critical. The one clunky aspect pertains to the title, a reference to an ongoing plot thread where Justine and Jake, due to parental neglect, have to learn how to swim to be able to teach Teddy. It feels a little forced in, a heavy handed metaphor or perhaps even an excuse to have a marginally clever title.
As you’d expect it does slip into the happy ending resolution we all expect from films of this type, lessons learned, closer relationships, and the like. It’s just a little too neat compared to the more genuine progression earlier in the film.
Adult Beginners marries great performances from a top notch cast to a polished script. It has a little more of a mature feel to it than some more comedic slanted films of this type and is the better for it. Many aspects of the film are particularly resonant to those juggling everything life throws at them in the later years. For those looking at an entertaining drama that is a little more on the grown up side, this fills that void nicely.