Charlize Theron shines in 'Young Adult,' but her character has it too easy
"Young Adult is a movie about a gorgeous, successful woman who nonetheless lives like a slob, cant keep a serious relationship going and cant quite forget the high school love of her life.
So she leaves the big city to go back to her crummy little hometown and try to win him back.
It sounds a little like yet another Katherine Heigl movie.
But this is actually a Charlize Theron movie, with Jason Reitman directing a script from Diablo Cody. And that makes a difference.
Thats because nobody here Theron chief among them is worried about making its heroine likable.
Yes, Mavis is tall, thin and beautiful and subsists on booze and junk food, which is itself a bit of a clich generally, people who live on KFC and bourbon look like they live on KFC and bourbon. So theres that nod to Hollywood convention.
But Mavis is also wicked. How wicked? Shes a drunken driver. Shes mean to everybody. Oh, and that boyfriend shes determined to win back is married, happily to a special-ed teacher, no less and they even have a new baby.
But pour Mavis another Makers Mark and get out of her way, because nothing matters except getting what she wants.
Although the direction seems a little matter-of-fact after Reitmans great Up in the Air and interesting Thank You for Smoking, he quietly gets the ugly ex-urban sprawl just right. The soundtrack is also a good collection of just the sort of tunes these 30-somethings would have been list! ening to , back in their glory days.
And the film is anchored by good performances from Theron, who is clearly glad to be back in a lead role after some time off, and Patton Oswalt as a former love-struck classmate she can barely remember. Codys script gives them both great lines, and Theron is skilled at the small gesture like the way she hugs ex-beau Patrick Wilson just a moment too long.
But then, in the last 20 minutes, the film falters as it pushes its idea just one step too far.
Its fine to have an unlikable heroine; its even fine to have a heroine who does not change or learn a single thing from her experiences. People only have to grow in therapy; in drama, its quite acceptable if like Hud, or Tony Soprano they remain as unpleasant at the end of their stories as they were at the beginning.
No, Young Adult finally stumbles not because it tries to make us like Mavis, but because everyone else in it seems to, no matter what she does. No one ever calls her on her undeserved snobbishness (this big-city author is actually a Minneapolis ghostwriter of teen-romance paperbacks) and even Oswalts character still makes excuses for her.
The films first hour or so, climaxing with Mavis throwing drunken verbal jabs at a family party, is pretty great; when it comes to snark, this gal is a champ and its fun to watch her work out.
But itd be a real bout and an even better movie if someone in her own weight class occasionally hit back.
Ratings note: The film contains strong language, sexual situations and alcohol abuse.
Young Adult
(R) Paramount (94 min.)
Directed by Jason Reitman. With Charlize Theron, Patton ! Oswalt, Patrick Wilson. Now playing in New York. Opens in New Jersey Dec. 16.
TWO AND A HALF STARS
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