'The Way Way Back' features Wareham in big way

A station wagon is traveling down the highway.

A sign appears: "Water Wizz, 6 & 28, East Wareham."

The car exits the highway and, suddenly, it's in Dudley Brown Square in Onset.

Beach decorations cover the front of what was the Victorian Cafe. The windows of the former Onset Blues Cafe, vacant during summer of 2012 filming, are covered in paper — old copies of Wareham Week (OK, you can't make that out in the film, but it's true!)

It's the beginning of "The Way Way Back," and the movie — starring Steve Carell, Toni Collette, and Liam James, features Wareham in a big way.

It is a coming-of-age tale about a delightfully awkward 14-year-old boy named Duncan, played by James, who travels to a beachfront community for a summer vacation with his mother, played by Collette of "The United States of Tara," and her boyfriend, played by Carell of "The Office" fame.

The movie features funny moments along with heart-wrenching scenes with Duncan dealing with his mother's difficult boyfriend.

In an attempt to escape from watching his mother, her boyfriend, and their neighbors drink themselves into oblivion, Duncan gets a job at none other than Cranberry Highway's Water Wizz, where much of the movie unfolds.

But Wareham is all over the movie.

In one scene, Duncan, after pedaling his bike down South Avenue in Onset, has lunch at Marc Anthony's Pizzeria. He meets the person who will become his future boss, Owen, who is playing the Pac-Man arcade game at the pizza joint. When coworkers tell Owen they have to get back to work, Owen slams the rest of his slice of pizza and plate into a garbage can.

This is funny, because if you've been to Marc's (we all have, right?), you know that there are no garbage cans. The staffers take care of the trash.

Marc Anthony's pops up again at a party for a departing Water Wizz employee. Guess where they ordered food? (Look for the pizza boxes!)

The places are familiar, but so are many of the faces. Many Wareham residents appear as extras in the movie. You can catch them if you know where to look.

When Duncan plops himself down on a picnic table at Water Wizz, only to be told, sarcastically, that he is "having too much fun," look in the background. You can see Sandra Kunze Sarkisian, now age 18, who worked as an extra in the movie during the summer before her senior year at Wareham High School.

"I knew I was going to be in that scene. … It was a pretty important scene," says Sarkisian. "But I didn't expect to see me so much!"

Sarkisian was sitting at a table with other local extras.

"We had to do fake conversations. They were like, 'Just talk to each other,'" she explained. "There's one scene where we were talking about poodles and dog breeds."

Sarkisian admits that she was a bit nervous to see the movie.

"I was worried that, since I was in it, what if it was a bad movie?" she said.

But she didn't have to worry after seeing it in Providence before the movie made its way to Flagship Cinemas in West Wareham.

"It was very heartfelt. ... I have a feeling that our town's going to get a lot of publicity," Sarkisian noted. "It was a good movie. It was really fantastic."

"The Way Way Back" has gotten good reviews from film critics as well. How do you think it measures up? Let us know in the comment section of this story!