An Oscar-worthy performanceBy John DeSando, WCBE's "It's Movie Time," "Cinema Classics," and "On the Marquee"
"Everyone here is fat and dumb." Sandra (Collette Wolfe)
How could I possibly like the bourbon swilling, bad-mouthing babe in Young Adult? The easy answer is it happens to be Charlize Theron as Mavis Gary, but it's not that easy. Juno veteran director Jason Reitman and writer Diablo Cody have crafted a complicated heroine repugnant in her misanthropy but endearing in her search for identity.
Mavis is a 33 year-old ghost writer of popular young adult novels, which mirror the romantic uncertainty of her own life. To cope with a recent divorce and come to terms with her halcyon high school days, she returns to rural Mercury, Minnesota, to tear high school heartthrob, Buddy (Patrick Wilson), from his wife and child in an awkward attempt to alter the fixed arc of life.
That she would even try to snag Buddy is a flaw in Cody's otherwise sharp narrative. However, Cody's awareness of the shallowness of contemporary pop culture is well represented by the presence of such middle-class Meccas as Chili's, KFC, and Staples.
While this is heady stuff, Young Adult is simply about a maturing novelist discovering herself as she confronts her past and faces the future. In the present she forms an eccentric relationship with a disabled former classmate, Matt (Patton Oswalt), who serves as a convenient and wholly likeable metaphor for her wounded, gritty, and loving nature. When Mavis and Matt are together, it is a highly-developed form of Will and Grace.
It's Matt's sister, Sandra, who expresses Mavis's misanthropy and perceptiveness about her Midwest Minnesota roots: "Everyone here is fat and dumb."
What Mavis learns along the way awaits the audience, but I'll chance the wrath of discerning viewers who don't want to know endings by saying being who you really are is one of the great lessons of Young Adult.
As for Theron, she might win the Oscar again. As for Cody, she is now at the top of established writers in Hollywood. As for director Reitman, keep bringing on these Euro-like, character-driven tales, and you will stand proudly next to your dad. This film is a great little tale with big performances and themes worthy of bigger productions.
John DeSando co-hosts WCBE 90.5's It's Movie Time, Cinema Classics, and On the Marquee, which can be heard streaming at http://publicbroadcasting.net/wcbe/ppr/index.shtml and on demand at http://www.publicbroadcasting.net/wcbe/arts.artsmain He is also a film critic for Fox 28. Contact him at JDeSando@Columbus.RR.com