Review: Young Adult
The latest film from director Jason Reitman (Up in the Air), Young Adult, is incredibly hard to review. It's not often that a movie can be a very great one centered on a character so vile, yet so damned relatable that you might find yourself questioning either your current status in life, or your status at some other point in your life. The brilliant Diablo Cody has proven once again that she can write a film tackling issues that force the viewer to think about them rather than just sit in a theater with a turned-off brain.
Different people will see Young Adult and gain different perspectives on the film. Is it a love story? Yes, albeit an extremely twisted one. Is it a story about depression? Yes, but you could argue it isn't clinical depression as much as an intentional unwillingness to let oneself be happy. All of these are true, but for me, the heart of the story is a simple one about the proverbial "one that got away" told from a woman's perspective.
Mavis Gary (Charlize Theron) is a slacker. True, at first glance she doesn't look like a slacker, but this very beautiful woman very obviously has some issues. Despite being a successful author of a popular children's series, she wakes up in a stupor every day, usually hung over. Stumbles over to her fridge where she chugs two-liter bottles of Diet Coke like she hasn't had a drink for days. She's got a cute Pomeranian that she feeds and then leaves out on the balcony while she gets her Wii Fit workout on. This is her life, and there's not much to it.
But on the day the movie begins, Mavis gets an email from the wife of an old flame announcing the birth of their new baby. Buddy Slade (Patrick Wilson) is "the one that got away" for Mavis, and although she's been through one marriage, she never really got over her high-school crush. She sets off to Buddy's baby's naming ceremony where she'll attempt to right the wrongs that set her life in motion to the way it's become.
Young Adult excels from the first frame, and although it's essentially a character piece, the way this character is built and then revealed to the audience is absolutely brilliant. Theron's Mavis is a vile character, but she's got so many layers to her that are ever so lightly peeled back throughout the film in such a subtle way, that despite how contemptuous she is, you're just so wrapped up in her story. What sounds like a simple character to play is made into an incredibly difficult role and that is due to the brilliance of Diablo Cody's writing and Jason Reitman's directing.
It isn't just Theron who puts on a great performance here. Patton Oswalt brings forth some acting chops that only those who've seen Big Fan can attest to witnessing. Playing a character who has issues that Oswalt himself has confronted in his life, he brings a level of sweetness with his signature sarcastic wit while being the voice of reason for Mavis. It's easy to see, though, how his character still falls into the trap of being one of her many enablers in the film; after all, she is incredibly beautiful.
The characters who constantly enable Mavis's behavior are the only weak point of the film. When it should be plainly obvious that she is a supremely messed-up girl, the ones who realize that don't tell her to her face, and the rest of them put up blinders to stay in her good favor.
Young Adult shows us a prime example of why people should let go of the past. Most of us have (or don't have) "the one that got away," and whether or not you've ever gotten over that person, it's best to leave them in the past. This is how we grow up and get past being the young adults we once were. This is a truly great film about facing our past, and despite the horribleness of the character's personality, Charlize Theron brings an amazing performance on screen. It's not much of a feel-good movie, but it will certainly hit you, one way or the other.