The poster for the movie “The Spectacular Now” shows the two main characters, next to a car, fancily dressed on their way to prom. By looking at it you would think the movie is about youth falling in love. That, however, is not the case. “The Spectacular Now” is not a teen romance. Romance is merely a plot device.

We meet Sutter Kelly (Miles Teller) at a pivotal moment of his life. There is a script we’re all supposed to follow after high school (i.e. go to college, have a job, settle) that Sutter doesn’t seem to have integrated. He’s not interested in that, he “lives in the now.” He’s a partier, and a borderline alcoholic at that. The world, as he knows it, is falling apart. Everyone around him is moving forward, but the young man is blindly attached to his present reality that prevents him from envisioning a future.

There is a love story in the movie and it would be dishonest to not talk about it because the chemistry between the two principal actors, Miles Teller and Shailene Woodley (playing Sutter’s love interest Aimee Finicky), is perfect. The romance is more a means for Sutter to avoid his responsibilities, get attention from his ex-girlfriend Cassidy, in sum, staying in the now as much as he can, before everything evaporates completely.

In the age of young supernatural heroes, gifted Chosen Ones who have to save the world and fight evil forces, “The Spectacular Now” chooses a realistic approach to teenage years. No world to save here, only existential questions to answer: who am I, what do I want and who loves me. It’s a coming of age story that departs from the usual formula; we’re uncertain if the characters grew or learned anything.

The end, opened and ambiguous, is where the love story takes all its significance. It is up to the spectator to decide whether or not the end of the movie is cynically realistic or a naïve celebration of the reparative virtues of love.