Young Adult, starring Charlize Theron, got a fair amount of critical buzz when it was
released last December. It was a somewhat polarized reception, with some
critics lauding the movie as an incisive little gem, while others dismissed it
as, well, a piece of crap. I had heard some good things about it through the grapevine,
but did not get around to seeing it at a theater – perhaps because of all of
the end of year competition. I finally caught it last month on a long-distance
flight.
Young Adult was written by Diablo Cody and directed by Jason
Reitman, the same team that gave us Juno (2007). I liked Juno as a quirky,
satirical comedy with cute, charming high school protagonists (Ellen Page and
Michael Cera). That movie had a back story about a yuppie couple that comes
apart because the husband (Jason Bateman) is stuck in adolescence and can't
come to grips with adult responsibilities. In Young Adult, Theron plays a yuppie
woman who has never gotten past her high school glory days and can't come to
grips with adult responsibilities. Juno worked, because it focused on the kids
and their coming of age story; Bateman's character was a mere sketch, and a
creepy one at that. Young Adult doesn't work, because it focuses on the creepy
character and doesn't really know what to do with her.
The protagonist is called Mavis Gary, a recently divorced
(no explanation of how or why) mid-30s ghost writer of young adult romance novels,
living in Minneapolis. She is beautiful, but other than that redeeming cinematic
quality, we quickly learn that she is also narcissistic, self-destructively alcoholic,
promiscuous, superficial, miserable and mean; in short, an unlikable creep
(except, again, that she is beautiful, and thus watchable). Mavis longs for the
good old days when she was on top of the world: the high school prom queen,
paired with handsome football star Buddy Slade. When she learns that Slade
(Patrick Wilson), now married and still living in the little backwater town
they grew up in, is about to become a father, she obsesses on the wacky idea
that she can be happy by going and winning him back. Thus begins her odyssey.
This set-up allows Cody and Reitman to cynically contrast
the sleek, highly coiffed, sophisticated urbanite with the flannelled, earthbound
small-town burghers, and at the same time to contrast the supposedly debased
mores of those cityfolk against the bedrock, family-oriented values of real
people (who apparently only survive in a rural Norman Rockwell America). For the
first 20 or 30 minutes of this flick, when Mavis first arrives back in her
hometown, that sort of works. After that, the writer and director have no idea
what to do with the situation they have created. (Based on their respective
post-Juno careers, it would appear that Cody and Reitman aren't too big in the
idea department.)
Going in, we pretty much know that Mavis can't be permitted
to succeed in her quest to seduce the new Papa away from his decent,
warmhearted wife (Elizabeth Reaser) and new baby; this is not that kind of movie. But apparently Cody and Reitman thought it could be a hoot to watch ninety minutes
about a creep’s failed attempt to break up a family. Well, sorry guys, its not. (Actually, Young
Adult would be closer to sixty minutes if the travelogue scenes, the endless putting on of makeup scenes, and
other filler were excised.) Maybe in the hands of someone with a clear vision,
but not here.
As a satire, the movie hits a few targets; but never really
decides where to aim. It gives us the Hollywood vision of middle America,
alternatively mocking the blandness of small town life, with its chain stores
and unsophisticated inhabitants; and simultaneously extolling the warmth, the neighborly barbecues, the focus on kids
and families, and the morality of that life; contrasted with the unreality and immorality of
Mavis’ pathetic, emptiness and her deluded notion of what’s important. Eventually
she gets her comeuppance and even seems to learn something. But then, Young
Adult concludes with Matt’s nerdy sister giving Mavis a pep talk, telling her
she’s absolutely right for rejecting this town full of breeders and losers ,
that she and the big city are better than all them. That makes Mavis happy, and
the happy 80’s soundtrack comes up. This makes absolutely no sense, however.
Theron is a good actress and she does a nice job playing a
screwed up, delusional wreck. On the
other hand, Patrick Wilson, by all accounts a pretty bright guy (and a Broadway
stage actor of some note) plays Buddy blank faced, as a dunderhead who doesn’t
notice the obvious fact that Mavis is coming onto him. We do get
a nice sympathetic performance from Patton Oswalt, as Matt, a decent guy – the
B-list classmate of Mavis and Buddy, whose life was forever damaged as a result
of a vicious assault while they were in school together. (Incongruously, Mavis
has no recollection that Matt's locker was next to hers, but then remembers
quite clearly that he was "the hate crime guy." )
But good acting can’t save this mess of a picture.
Fans of this movie call it a dark
comedy. One reviewer described how
mesmerizing it was to watch a beautiful protagonist head into a personal
trainwreck. Lisa Schwartzman in E.W.
thought it was cool to watch a movie in which the writer and director were flipping
the finger at the moviegoer! (Really?) A O Scott of the NY Times wrote: “Shorter than a bad blind date and
as sour as a vinegar Popsicle, Young Adult shrouds its brilliant, brave and
breathtakingly cynical heart in the superficial blandness of commercial comedy.”
That’s better than any line in the picture. And to this extent, I’d agree: if
you enjoy a bad blind date or think you’d really like a vinegar popsicle, you
might love Young Adult.
For everyone else, give this one a miss.
Available
on BluRay and DVD, including from Netflix; Also available on Xfinity On Demand
and Amazon
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