Young Adult (2011)

Director: Jason Reitman
Country: USA


I don't think we'll ever get tired of the man-child character (or in this case, woman-child). Its an adult character that acts immature and like a child. Part of the reason we'll never get tired of them is that contradictory image of a full grown person doing some pretty stupid things. Charlize Theron indulges us all greatly in Young Adult with a performance that convincingly allows us to hate her completely without much sympathy at all. She's an adult who is still stuck in a world of teenage fantasy, and we flock to it because we know so many people like just like her.


Diablo Cody's script is sometimes very clever and definitely coherent, but it's not unique in many ways. What you might expect from a character like Mavis who comes back to her hometown is basically what you might expect to happen (except for a great ending that is certainly not conventional). The movie flows very well most of the time, but it comes to an abrupt close towards the final quarter that seems to suggest that the movie should have actually been much longer than it is. The main reason this movie does not get top accolades from me is the lack of ambition, not only from the script, but mostly from Jason Reitman's directing. The movie feels like something he did on a whim as a favor and didn't spend much time thinking about it in pre-production.


The film is ultimately a clever character study of a person who is flat-out fun to watch. Seeing the fancy and hot Mavis interact and befriend the nerdy guy played by Patton Oswalt is something that seems to happen only in the movies, but the actors and the script play on that so well that it's hard not to be amused. But really, I wished this film would be more than just amusing.


Grade: B-