I was never a fan of Juno, since I found it completely unsurprising and all the main "points" uninspiring. However, Young Adult, helmed by the same Jason Reitman/Diablo Cody duo was, for the most part, a moving and complicated film. Charlize Theron shines as a depressed writer, returning to her hometown in pursuit of a high school sweetheart. Theron is Mavis Gary, a ghostwriter for a young adult series that was once successful but is now on it's last leg. Like the characters in her books, Mavis a 37 year old woman, has a high school mentality. Despite her failures ( a failed marriage and obvious mental health problems) she still believes she is superior because she is beautiful. She subsists on a diet of coke and junk food, cares about no one and doesn't believe she has to do anything adults do, even neglecting her own dog. When Mavis finds out that her college boyfriend, Buddy (Patrick Wilson) has had a baby she decides to head to her home town to try and win him back. It's clear from an opening scene that depicts Mavis and another high school friend in a McCafe talking about how lucky they are to have escaped their small town that Mavis isn't going to find the results she seeks back home. Back home she quickly becomes friends with a former classmate, Matt (Patton Oswald). Matt was so severely beaten as a teenager that he now walks with a crutch and has, let's say, problems in the bedroom. The two spend most of the film getting drunk and discussing who has bigger problems They are a likable duo but present one of the major flaws with the film. Certainly, both of these characters seem to be in need of growing up and letting the past go, but there is a glibness in the way their issues are discussed. Although Charlize Theron's performance is nuanced and emotionally complex ranging from sympathetic to downright embarrassing, the film seems to believe, as it's characters do that she should just "grow up". If the implication is that Mavis is a depressed alcoholic, there is something troubling about this treatment of her. Furthermore, Matt's character doesn't have the power or depth he was, perhaps, intended to have. As a character study the film works and is emotionally moving, thanks to Theron, however, it is not cheerful, nor does it provide a sound and satisfying ending. This isn't a problem if you want a realistic or semi-realistic film but if you're looking for something escapist this isn't the film for you.
In another twist, although one which seems to be increasingly popular in mainstream American media, Mavis doesn't come home and find a wasteland of uncultured hicks, or if the people she meets do fit that stereotype, they are happy that way. They might even be more culturally aware than she is, in a confrontation with a book store employee she is informed that her books are no longer as successful as they were, something she seems in denial about. While her high school classmates have had the chance to move on she is stuck in her high school glory days, unwilling to concede that the things that were important then, no longer are and that she will need to find new ways of defining her success. Sure, she is beautiful (and bitchy) but those things can no longer get her what she wants, as evidenced by her failure to lure Buddy away from his wife. Most significantly, though, is the fact that Mavis isn't portrayed as either good or bad, she just is. At times she's likable, at others heartbreaking and at others infuriating, but never one dimensional. The film doesn't reach a real conclusion, Mavis never sorts out her issues, to use a cliché and she certainly doesn't get what she wants. What she does get is encouragement from an unlikely source to carry on being herself. Whether this is good, bad or simply just is, we don't know.
Bottom Line: Theron has shown over and over again what a stellar actress she is and this film, is nothing else, is further proof of her genius on the big screen.
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