Screenwriter Diablo Cody made her name with her very first film, “Juno.” That 2007 comedy-drama introduced a singular new voice, one that earned an Oscar for her debut screenplay. The little movie that could also got a nod for best director (Jason Reitman). The good news: Cody and Reitman have finally reunited and made another movie together. The bad news: “Young Adult” has absolutely none of the charm that made “Juno” a surprise hit.
Charlize Theron stars as Mavis, and the movie’s title describes both her career and her personality. Mavis writes a teen series much like the Sweet Valley High novels she probably read in her youth. She’s also still mired in that mind-set. She spouts adolescent cliches such as “Love conquers all.”
| Onstage |
| ‘Young Adult’ |
| 1.5 out of 4 stars |
| Stars: Charlize Theron, Patton Oswalt, Patrick Wilson |
| Director: Jason Reitman |
| Rated: R for language and some sexual content |
| Running time: 94 minutes |
Mavis is writing the final book in the series, and the end of that era has provoked her to revisit another. The 37-year-old returns back home, to Mercury, Minn., to reclaim her high school boyfriend, the aptly named Buddy (Patrick Wilson). Never mind that the reason he’s returned to mind is that she received a baby announcement from his wife. “I’m cool with it,” she says. “I’ve got baggage, too.” She confides her plan, without the least bit of embarrassment, to another graduate of her alma mater. Matt (Patton Oswalt) has no interest in returning to his youth. While Mavis was homecoming queen, Matt was brutally beaten by his fellow students who assumed the drama-loving loner was gay.
That is some dark material out of which to make a comedy, but the disconnect between story and mood isn’t the problem with the film. “Young Adult” could have been an interesting portrait of a certain type of depressive personality. Instead, it’s a preposterous story about people impossible, for the most part, to care about. No one here is likeable. That might not be a fair criticism if it weren’t clear that their creator didn’t have much interest in what such people’s inner lives are really like.
The alcoholic Mavis wakes up every painful morning with perfect makeup; the impossibly vain Mavis walks around the town in which her supposed love lives in jeans a lumberjack might reject. But the biggest improbabilities have to do with the very core of the story. “You’re better than this,” Buddy tells Mavis when she, inevitably, makes a fool of herself. So is her creator.
