Young Adult

2011 dramedy

Rating: 14/20

Plot: A writer of young adult romance literature makes a trip back to the old hometown to attempt to rekindle a relationship with a former flame even though that former flame is happily married with children.

I felt the need to see this Jason Reitman/Diablo Cody collaboration before seeing Tully. I'm glad I did because it really shows off the versatility of Charlize Theron in these semi-comedic roles. Truthfully, her character is more sad than funny, and everything that is funny in Young Adult is the kind of funny you feel a little guilty laughing at. Theron's Mavis is a thunderstorm descending on her former stomping grounds, leaving the potential for the genuine ruination of people's lives and awkwardness in her wake. The character is one of the least self-aware characters I've seen in recent memory. She's almost impossible to root for, especially since she doesn't seem like she's capable of learning anything or growing. She's a mess at the start of the movie, a shot where she's sleeping hungoverly on her face, and you get the sense that she's going to be a mess at the end of the movie, too. Recurring shots of her sleeping on her face are visual cues of that anyway. She has no ability to empathize, she uses people, she's selfish, she's narcissistic, and she's a complete fraud. At a major crossroads of her life, the only thing she can think to do is turn around and go back. Despite venturing out into the big city and finding a little fame and success as a writer, she seems to be a complete loser. And the worst thing about it all is that lack of self-awareness. Mavis doesn't even realize that she's the loser in this cluster of characters.

But back to Theron's performance. If you can get past not liking anything about the character, Theron's portrayal of this unlikable character is really good. There are a lot of emotions Mavis has to exude, and Theron nails them all without doing anything obvious to nail them. There are parts of this little slice of Mavis's life where the character's in despair, but you really have to hunt for it because it's hidden beneath a thin shell of pride and faux-happiness. And there are probably a couple of moments when the character is actually happy, but you have to look for those, too. Mavis is a bit of a riddle, a woman who is trying to hard to keep it all together while at the same time very obviously not holding anything together at all. Other than an eruption and a confession to her parents, nothing Theron is doing with this character makes it clear where the character is really at or where the character is going. And physically, Theron and her team of make-up and wardrobe people pull off some great tricks. There are times when she looks like the world has beaten on her for a while. She's still Charlize Theron and more beautiful than anybody you'll ever meet in person unless you've met my wife, but she's the human equivalent of her car after she's done with it in one scene. And then she cleans up and manages to overwhelm anybody else in any scene with her.

Patton Oswalt is also in this, but I didn't buy his character as much. He's about the perfect person to play this geeky guy approaching middle-age and holding on to his action figures, hybrid figures that play a symbolic role that is a little too on the nose at one point in the story. His character's got some dopey lines though. Patrick Wilson plays her love interest, a guy with a name that would fit perfectly for a character in a young adult romance novel. Buddy Slade. There are lots of directions this character could have been taken, and I was happy with the direction Cody and Reitman chose.

This movie feels like a coming-of-age story for a woman who should have come-of-age a long time ago. I'm not exactly sure what the point of the whole thing is, and it's hard to learn from a character who isn't learning anything, but with a great performance, it's worth watching.

My favorite scene involves a dog, by the way.

Oh, and [Spoiler Warning for both this and Tully]: Charlize Theron characters should stop driving in these Cody/Reitman productions.