Young Adult Review

Posted by Nolan Woodford on 12.18.2011

A disappointing look at a depressed woman convinced the grass is always greener on the other side...



Mavis Gary: Charlize Theron
Matt Freehauf: Patton Oswalt
Buddy Slade: Patrick Wilson
Beth Slade: Elizabeth Reaser
Sandra Freehauf: Collette Wolfe
Hedda Gary: Jill Eikenberry
David Gary: Richard Bekins

Paramount Pictures presents a film directed by Jason Reitman and written by Diablo Cody.
Rated R for language and some sexual content.
Running Time: 1 hour, 34 minutes
Release Date: December 16, 2011

Charlize Theron doesn't have an Oscar win and another nomination in the past decade for nothing. She holds true to form with a strong turn as Prom Queen turned depressed alcoholic Mavis Gary in Young Adult. Despite never being more likable than she deserves to be - which isn't very much at all - Mavis still commands our attention. An interest in where she has been and where she is going. Unfortunately, neither of those questions, and several others posed throughout the course of Young Adult, are ever given an answer worthy of Theron and co-star Patton Oswalt's excellent performances.

Mavis is a 37-year-old woman living a life more accustomed to that of a 21-year-old frat boy put in a cheap downtown Minneapolis apartment. The only difference is that she has a puppy and writes a tween book series (somewhere on the shelves near Sweet Valley High, I'd imagine) to earn her living. The bad news is that she's suffering from a severe case of writer's block. The good news is that she only has to write one more book before the series is canceled. Wait, that's bad news too.

Seemingly isolated from the rest of the world and spiraling into depression, Mavis seems incapable of truly growing up like the fans of her book series seem to be doing. After receiving word that her old high school flame (Wilson) is now a father, Mavis decides to further stunt her maturation by returning home to the small town of Mercury and recapture what she'd lost since high school. Mavis desperately tries to convince those willing to listen, and likely herself as well, that she and Buddy Slade were meant to be together and breaking up a marriage is just a speed bump to her fate.

She develops something of a confidant in an old classmate, Matt (Oswalt), who she only remembers as "The Hate Crime Kid" because he was beaten within an inch of his life for being presumed gay by some high school classmates. Forced to walk with a crutch and left with malfunctioning genitalia, Matt has a much different outlook on life than Mavis' distorted reality. Nevertheless, despite being polar opposites on the surface, they quickly decide to frequently turn to one another because no one else in Mercury is as quick to drown their sorrows in the nearest bottle.

There are some real complex and interesting issues laid out in Young Adult. Yet, the majority of the film's energy is spent trying to answer a question we're already quite sure of the answer to: Will Mavis be able to win Buddy Slade back from his wife and baby? We're never quite sure if Mavis is serious about her alleged affections or if her only interest is trying to prove to herself that she can still be the most popular girl in town. She's probably not sure either. Unfortunately, the storyline has a bit of a parallel with this past summer's putrid rom-com Something Borrowed. The main character has a man of more use to her than her alleged dream guy could ever be, yet she is so caught up in the wild fantasy she has created for herself that she never sees it for more than a brief moment.

A lot of the time Mavis wastes with Buddy becomes wasted time on the audience. It is briefly glossed over that Mavis is recovering from a failed marriage and has a nervous habit of pulling her hair out. She's also lost touch with her parents and comes to town with no thought of their existence. There is a bombshell that is dropped late in the film about a life-changing experience, and it's lost almost immediately after it's spoken. How did all these things come about? Why are they given such minimal attention? Clearly all of them had an impact on how the 18-year-old queen of high school became the 37-year-old alcoholic, but seem to have no impact on Young Adult at all. And when the credits are rolling, it's more than questionable what kind of impact the things we've actually seen have had on Mavis.

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The 411: Charlize Theron and Patton Oswalt give strong enough performances to make Young Adult a much more provoking cinematic experience than it otherwise could've been. Diablo Cody strikes me as a writer more fascinated with how things are being said as opposed to what is actually being said. Young Adult is not the movie to have a storybook "Happily Ever After", but it doesn't have much of an "Ever After" at all. It's just sort of there, nearly as careless and unpolished as its main character.

Final Score:  6.5   [ Average ]