Young Adult

Jason Reitman’s last couple of films were Juno and Up In The Air, both worthy, but also open to accusations of smugness. Young Adult has no such problems as Reitman returns to the black comedy that served him so well in Thank You For Smoking. Interestingly though it is his Juno screenplay queen Diablo Cody who reunites with him here and though the script tones down the smartarseness (oddly enough spell check doesn’t recognise that one), it is also pretty thin. The Young Adult in question here is Mavis (Charlize Theron), a 37 year old mildly successful author, who returns to her hometown with the premise of getting back together with old high school sweetheart Buddy (Patrick Wilson). One problem though, Buddy is now happily married with a young kid thrown in as well. The concept of this film isn’t exactly breaking new material, i.e. an examination of prolonged adolescence and middle aged adults taking retrospectives’ of their lives. Also this smacked to me of Grosse Pointe Blank (minus the hitman angle, of course) right down to the soundtrack featuring some of the same tunes. Theron is decent in the lead role, but it’s Patton Oswalt as an old high school colleague who steals the show, complete with convincing disability. Though they are of a very sour variety Oswalt’s character provides many of the laughs and garnishes the story with a real pathos that would be missing if this was solely a study of Mavis. This is actually the films main sticking point as Mavis is a tough character to muster much sympathy for. Also Buddy’s surprise at Mavis’ advances towards him is scarcely credible the way she carries on around him. Wilson though does have one of the prime moments of cringe worthy comedy in the picture when he surprises his wife with a shiny new drum kit seconds after a bombshell has been dropped. Overall, this isn’t anything you haven’t seen elsewhere before, but it has enough moments for the target audience to know what Cody is going on about.

The OC Film Sting Final Verdict
Worth catching for Oswalt’s great performance and a few moments of sharpness from Cody’s script. Rating: 6/10.