After breaking onto the movie scene with the quirky, polarizing "Juno" and following it up two years later with the disappointing "Jennifer's Body," it seemed highly debatable that writer Diablo Cody would ever turn out something universally appealing.
Incidentally, this was accomplished in short order on the small screen with 2009's breakout "United States of Tara," and Cody's success continues with her latest feature film venture, "Young Adult."
"Young Adult" centers around Mavis Gary (Charlize Theron), a young adult fiction author still reeling from a divorce and the cancellation of her book series. On a whim, she decides to return to her small hometown to, of all things, win back her ex-boyfriend, who is now married with a newborn daughter.
Mavis, like the characters she writes, is entirely self-absorbed. Unlike her characters, however, she can drink, which she does profusely. Both of these tendencies drive her further into her disconnect with the real world as she works on her delusional mission.
Providing a welcome and entertaining dose of reality is former high school classmate Matt Freehauf (Patton Oswalt). Oswalt is perfect here, offering both biting and heartfelt comedic relief and a compassionate foil that can hold his own against Theron's jerk of a character.
The audience gets a deeper look into Mavis's past as the story progresses and she continues to rehash her past. This, coupled with the film's climax and subsequent recovery, serves to explain Mavis's faults, but does not justify them. Her behavior is, without a doubt, self-serving to the bone.
The flaws, however, are all intentional. The character of Mavis is written and performed with careful and deliberate attention, giving equal weight to both her quirky, selfish nature and stubbornly likeable moments.
While the movie's ending may not offer enough satisfaction for some viewers, "Young Adult" holds strong throughout, thanks to solid acting, a script ripe with parallels and fluid interplay between comedy and drama.
Contrary to her natural state of being, Renee Lorenz is a total optimist when it comes to Milwaukee. Since beginning her career with OnMilwaukee.com, her occasional forays into the awesomeness that is the Brew City have turned into an overwhelming desire to discover anything and everything that's new, fun or just ... "different."
Expect her random musings to cover both the new and "new-to-her" aspects of Miltown goings-on, in addition to periodically straying completely off-topic, which usually manifests itself in the form of an obscure movie reference.
