Young Adult

Starring;

Charlize Theron

Patton Oswalt

Patrick Wilson

Elizabeth Reaser

Director;

Jason Reitman

In three words; Nostalgic - Heavy - Weak

Plot;

Mavis Gary (Theron) is an alcoholic author of a series of teen fiction. She is depressed and lonely. When she hears that her ex-boyfriend is a new father she sets her sights on heading back to her hometown in order to win him back. A task that she believes will be easy.

Review;

Mavis Gary is an egocentric, obnoxious, self-indulgent drunk. She is just about holding things together as she attempts to write another instalment of her previously successful teen series of young adult novels. Whilst she struggles with writers block she receives an email with pictures of the newborn daughter of her childhood sweetheart Buddy Slade (Wilson). Mavis believes that this must be a sign that she should establish contact with her old flame in order to win him back. Mavis has previously gone through divorce and it would seem a series of meaningless encounters which fuels her self-loathing.

It is clear that she is unable to let go of the past and grow up. This is reflected wonderfully during the opening sequence and titles with a nostalgic look at her past as she travels to her hometown. The town has changed since her childhood, gone is the American dream and in is the commercial nightmare. This is a wonderful opening which confirms to the audience that times have changed and although this is noticed by Mavis she clearly wishes to ignore it.

The start of the film is a little slow and with a running time of only 94 minutes this is surprising as once we start to meet various characters one would expect to see a consistency throughout the film. It seems like the opening is padded out to extend the run time but more effort should have been made to expand key scenes. We are presented with rush scenes which facilitate nothing more than moving the story on rather than creating relationships. This gives a rather weak feel to what should be a better film.

A case in point is when Mavis befriends local Matt Freehauf (Oswalt) in a bar. He was at school with her, she can only recall who he was because he suffered a terrible beating by bullies leaving him with injuries he still has. Once Mavis reveals her plan to win Buddy back Matt becomes the films consciousness. I wanted to see more of Mavis and Matt’s relationship; I wanted them to be in more scenes together. With Diablo Cody on screenplay duties I was expecting a stronger script and this lets the film down slightly. Whilst Cody and director Reitman work well together I feel that have been unable to capture the same standard as set out in the brilliant Juno.

Over all the film is executed very well and the assembled cast complement one another. There are some great scenes at the hotel where Mavis is staying along with Mavis and Matt enjoying the latter’s homebrew. Theron is excellent in her role which appears effortless to her; she makes the audience care about a character who is completely intolerable. That is not an easy task and a lesser actress would not have been able to give such a balanced performance. Patrick Wilson proves to be a solid actor as he portrays Buddy however for me the stand our performance is Patton Oswalt. His chemistry with Theron is wonderful to watch and he doesn’t get lost into the background.

At times the film is much heavier than I expected which gives gravitas to Theron’s performance. We are presented with a sad and lonely character in Mavis who makes various attempts to keep up appearances however when she does let her guard down it is plain to see that she doesn’t have a connection with anyone who can help her. This has been brought upon herself over years of pretending and failing to grow up.

This is an enjoyable film and one that I will look forward to revisiting at some point. However, I believe that it should have been better than it was.

Verdict;

3 out of 5.