‘Adventureland’ depicts young adults tenderly

‘Adventureland’

In its own gentle way, this film restores a welcome note of humanism to a genre that has lately become little more than a repository for fart and vomit jokes.

Jesse Eisenberg plays James Brennan, a recent college graduate whose plans for a European vacation before starting graduate school are foiled when his family suffers an economic setback.

James gets a job at the local amusement park, where he meets an eclectic group of lost and striving souls, including a thwarted rock musician (Ryan Reynolds) and a sultry, mysterious girl named Em (Kristen Stewart), with whom he furtively falls in love.

Thanks to an exceptionally deft touch, director Greg Mottola captures the absurdity and anguish of young adulthood; his tender look back will ring wistfully true to anyone who has fallen in love, left home or still wonders what it would be like to do either.

DVD extras include the rated and unrated versions of the film. (1:44; R for drug use, profanity and sexual references)

‘Duplicity’

Tony Gilroy’s romantic espionage caper pits two pharmaceutical companies against each other.

Burkett & Randle, led by Howard Tully (Tom Wilkinson), has discovered a cream that will revolutionize the industry. Equikrom, led by Richard Garsik (Paul Giamatti) needs to steal the secret to that lotion.

And there’s romance, of sorts. Behind the scenes, Claire Stenwick (Julia Roberts) and Ray Koval (Clive Owen) work their nefarious magic, he on Equikrom’s side, she on Burkett & Randle’s. But are they both really working for each other? And can they really trust each other?

Luckily, Owen and Roberts both get to play off Giamatti, who overacts gleefully. It’s smart, it’s for grown-ups and it lets Julia Roberts laugh, if just once.

DVD extras include commentary with writer/director Tony Gilroy and editor/co-producer John Gilroy. (2:05; PG-13 for language and some sexual content)

‘Sunshine Cleaning’

Amy Adams is Rose, a maid. Emily Blunt is Norah, a burnout. The sisters’ lives have dead-ended.

When Rose’s young son starts acting up at school, she decides to look for a private school where he can flourish. To help pay for it, Rose enters the expanding, lucrative market of crime-scene cleanup and entices Norah to join her.

What should have been a madcap comedy of the macabre, or a tangled yarn about the metaphorical biohazards of living life at the margins, shoots for the middle and ends up being just that: middling.

Adams and Blunt can’t be faulted for signing up for this film, which is earnest and well-meaning and tries to say something thoughtful about the untidiness of family relationships. (1:42; rated R for language, disturbing images, sexuality and drug use)

Also available: “American Son”“Fighting”; “Rudo Y Cursi”; “The Informers”; “House: Season Five”; “Smallville: The Complete Eighth Season”; “NCIS: The Complete Sixth Season”; “One Tree Hill: The Complete Sixth Season”; “Lie To Me: Season One”; “thirtysomething: The Complete First Season.”