'Young Adult' - A Review by Devin
It has almost been ten years since Monster. She has had some missteps (*cough* Aeon Flux *cough*) since her Oscar win but Charlize Theron is still a revelation. On the surface, this might seem like a cakewalk to play. A hot, thirty-something returns to her hometown to retrieve her old flame. Well...this is not a romantic comedy.
We all know someone like Mavis and we all have a little Mavis in ourselves. Mavis Gary (Charlize Theron) is a divorced, semi-successful author of a teen book series that is nearing the end of its course due to decreased popularity. Mavis is an alcoholic, lost soul but, hey, she has her money and her looks and she is no longer stuck in her dismal small town of Mercury, Minnesota. But upon checking her emails one day, she see's that the "love of her life," Buddy(Patrick Wilson), and his wife have given birth to a baby. The kind of event we all dread and are sometimes mortified by, and now, thanks to Facebook, cannot always avoid seeing. Mavis decides she is going to go back and save Buddy from this boring life, a "hostage" she calls him.
Upon coming back to town, she encounters a former classmate, Matt (Patton Oswalt), who is a cripple with a dark high school past of his own. Though Mavis would not have given him the time of day back then...against the odds those two begin an unlikely friendship since they have no one else to turn to. As the story unfolds, Mavis is still trying to write the final book in her series. She uses her own life experiences to channel into Kendall, the lead character. We hear this narration and it helps to show what is going on inside of Mavis's head. Matt keeps trying to help Mavis by reminding her that she is on the verge of psychotic with her intentions and that Buddy is MARRIED WITH A KID, but Mavis is ignorant to so much and refuses to accept the reality around her, so when she decides to take matters into her own hands, all hell breaks loose.
Every time we think we have life figured out, something triggers us to change our mind. Mavis has a support system but she chooses to surround herself with the wrong ones. (Kendra and the Kardashians are always on her television when she wakes up from her rough nights out.) How happy are we really? How much do we run away from...? Buddy tells Mavis, "You look the same, all of us look different but it's like you got lucky." Just how lucky? And have we "made it" since we escaped our cursed small towns?
One of the films best bits is a scene where Mavis talks with Matt's sister, who was also a "nobody" in high school, ignored by Mavis. Just when we think Mavis might have had some sense knocked into her, Matt's sister kicks her back into her delusions by telling her everyone in the town is fat and stupid, that Mavis is so much prettier and is famous in the big city. An example of an adult, conforming back into outcast teenager just to still try her best to impress the prom queen...the scene is equal parts humorous and chilling.
Diablo Cody is clearly talented, she took home the Oscar for writing Juno back in 2008. But I was not a big fan of that film, the screenplay was too talky and "witty," but here she has found a natch for balancing dark comedy and harsh emotions. Jason Rietman (also of Juno and Up in the Air) directs the film and he catches all the imagery that reflects what kind of disheveled person Mavis is and what kind of town Mercury is.
Young Adult will make you laugh and make you uncomfortable among other things, but it will open your eyes. The film provides a brutally honest reality check for our unconventional heroine and for ourselves. Mavis still has a lot to learn by the end of the film but she just might be able to start the next chapter of her life, finally leave high school behind and...grow up.
Bottom line: Charlize back in a juicy role with a risky and daring script make Young Adult an entertaining, if unsettling, character study.
10 out of 10