** out of ****
Directed by: Jason Reitman
Starring: Charlize Theron, Patton Oswalt, Patrick Wilson and Elizabeth Reaser
Running time: 94 minutes
Life has been good to screenwriter Diablo Cody ever since she abandoned her exotic dancing to become a writer. She won an Oscar for Juno, created a hit television show (The United States of Tara) and now occasionally dabbles in writing a guest column for Entertainment Weekly.
Unfortunately, the hip, brazenly funny lady born Brook Busey attempted to pen something new to foster her development as a film scribe: an off-kilter pitch-black character study about an unredeemable mean girl called Young Adult. She also teamed up with Jason Reitman, who directed her Juno script. The results this time, however, are more mixed, as Cody’s character scribblings don’t add up to a satisfying whole.
The agonizing protagonist is Mavis Gary (a blistering Charlize Theron), a writer for a young adult series that is not selling well. Instead of working on the final installment, she walks around her Minneapolis apartment in a stupor, naps through the afternoon while her dog waits to be fed, and then spends hours perfecting an exacting beautification ritual, designed to make her look 20 years younger.
Then, she heads out for another one night stand or evening of drunken debauchery. Mavis wallows in the same superficial aimlessness that the popular homecoming queens she crafts in her stories live in.
After she receives a photo of a newborn belonging to an high-school flame, Buddy Slade (Patrick Wilson), she vows to head back to her “hick hometown” of Mercury, Minnesota to reclaim her old beau. That Buddy’s married to a sweet wife (Elizabeth Reaser) and has a child doesn’t taint her mission to recapture her dream man. Moreover, like the fluffy characters she writes about, Mavis believes a fairy tale ending is on its way.
Back in Mercury, she bumps into a locker buddy she once ignored named Matt Freehauf (Patton Oswalt, wry and witty), who has a very different recollection of his youth. Over brews and chats, Matt and Mavis take a break from their wayward lives and reminisce about the high school experience that neither have gotten over.
Young Adult is a film designed around a character, and since the character is particularly inaccessible, the film is not an easy watch. Whether one roots for a manipulative, selfish, clumsily irresponsible character may depend on whether the tiny shreds of humanity that peer from the character at her most vulnerable moments make much of an indent. Otherwise, the film is a deadening 94 minutes of spending time with someone one wishes they hadn’t.
Theron is a versatile actress but she is only offered the range of a two-dimensional character. It is amusing to watch her inhabit the aura of an impersonal and conniving prom queen bitch, though, and observe her steadfastness to never losing that persona. It is a bleak, bold, committed performance.
Beyond that, since Cody's script refuses to allow the character to grow, the film is unable to blossom into anything more than amusing character observations - and a petrifying barrage of product placement.
The only scenes that feel fresh involve the relationship sparked between Mavis and Matt. Mavis was idealized high-school perfection, while Matt was maimed by homophobic jocks. Now, she writes high-school teen lit and he walks around with a crutch, both constant reminders of those four years while growing up.
Although they never connected during their fledgling youth, both are able to confront each other about the lives they had and the ones they lead in the present day. Theron and Oswalt bring a sardonic edge to their characters, turning embitterment into chemistry that works.
Their relationship should have been the primary focus of Young Adult, since the situational structure of Mavis’s journey – show up, entice Buddy and take him back – becomes repetitive and ultimately predictable. Without any character arc or progression from the first frame to the last, Young Adult is a monotonous adventure.
There are no surprises here, except for perhaps the quick regression that director Jason Reitman has seen from his superb first three features into this simplistic, mopey attempt at “dark comedy.” I use that genre in scare quotes here, since the film seldom shocks or humours.
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