Young Adult brings to the screen an unconventional story of a woman who's slowly growing older, but doesn't want to grow up. Charlize Theron is absolutely splendid in her role as a cold-hearted, selfish and mentally unstable writer while Patton Oswalt really shines on his part, giving a performance that I thought was highly underestimated by most critics and viewers.
Mavis Gary (Charlize Theron) is a writer who lives in the city of Minneapolis. Living all alone in her apartment with her dog Dolce, she struggles with writing one last installment of a young adult book series that has been cancelled by the publisher, and is in need of some inspiration. One morning she receives an e-mail with a photo of her ex-boyfriend's newborn baby. In a reckless fit, she decides to go back to her hometown in Mercury, Minnesota to get back what she had when she was a teenager and along the way, write her book according to what happened in her experiences with Buddy Slade (Patrick Wilson). Upon arrival she takes on her mission head-on and doesn't lose any time trying to hook up a date with him. At a local bar she meets one of her high school classmates, Matt Freehauf (Patton Oswalt) who remembers her from their school days while she has no recollection of him until she realizes he was the victim of a hate crime where he lost one of his legs and received severe damage to his lower body. She informs him of her wicked plan and he immediately warns her that she is completely out of her mind and should seek professional help. Stubborn as a mule, she doesn't let up on her opportunity to finally be happy, but we start to question how soon will she realize her childish behavior and if she can ever change or avoid a public humiliation among her small-town peers.
After a three-year hiatus from acting, Charlize Theron chooses one of the most challenging roles in the 2011 film season to bring her back to acting glory. Managing to get back on top with an Oscar worthy performance of a character who is so deluded and out of this world while also being a complete opposite of what Charlize is like in real life, is definitely a daring feat to take on just as you get back from such a long break. But Charlize brings all the goods anyway, and doesn't seem to reveal any rust at all playing a character with a such a layered and complex mindset. What makes Mavis so interesting to me is probably that she has priorities that are similar to a teenager's, which makes it possible for her to write in the young adult genre yet completely destroy her personal life at the same time. What I don't understand is how her series can get cancelled. I suppose that's the price she pays for being so caught up in her past and not being able to grow up and face that what happened, happened, and that she should just move on. I wonder if people like her actually exist and how in the world did the writer Diablo Cody, come up with this concept?
Yet another comedy actor and comedian proves that they can also be great in dramatic roles, and Patton Oswalt gives an amazing performance as a crippled man who is kind in nature but hasn't had a good deal of luck in life. The scenes between him and Theron were so intense and at moments he completely leveled with her if not passed her in the amount of emotion he gave. Just plain great acting and totally unexpected.
Apart from the acting, the story wasn't really that exciting and at the end, it felt nothing but an introspective character study that seemed a little bit surreal as well as gloomy. We come all this way from a character that is obviously troubled and is willing to hurt anyone in order to be happy; want her to change so badly for her own good as well as for others' sake, and eventually getting nothing in the end. She continues life in the same manner and has no regrets just because she still believes that she is better than all those who still live in Mercury. The camera work wasn't so impressive either, but I do applaud the opening credits with the many different shots of a playing cassette. That is as good as it's gonna get, but I suppose that was the essence they were going for. Simplicity in the overall shooting process, while having a character focused base that balanced the film and gave it a distinct flavor.
I advise you to see this just for the sake of seeing some great performances which are funny and witty as well as being hardcore dramatic, but you might feel downright bad after it comes to a close, making it the feel-bad film of 2011.
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