Young Adult

Normally movies like “Young Adult” offer great characters and hilarious interactions as people attempt to relieve their high school days believing those were their best days. However, this movie did not deliver that at all. None of the characters were all that well developed. It’s not that they weren’t developed as adults it’s that the characters just weren’t developed to the point of being that interesting.

There really isn’t a character to truly root for. The closest one is Matt (Patton Oswalt), a guy who was crippled by the several jocks in high school because they thought he was gay. This fact is introduced in a joking manner as if it’s supposed to be funny that it happened especially since you know it turns out he’s not actually gay. Our heroine Mavis (Charlize Theron) finally realizes who he is and refers to him several times as “the hate crime guy”. Later as she struggles to get her high school sweetheart Buddy (Patrick Wilson) to believe Matt isn’t gay we learn that she used to refer to Matt as one of those “theater fags”. She laughs it off as is it’s just something you say, and that it is acceptable.

If there was a greater lesson learned from this incident it might work okay. If there was a character that was gay and just part of the cast that got the same kind of treatment as all the other characters, no problem. However, there is nothing funny about hate crimes so this is an ill conceived part of the story. The fact that Mavis later lays into him about not moving past things that happened in high school only makes it worse.

As for Mavis there is nothing worth supporting in that character. Honestly if this movie hadn’t been written by Diablo Cody I don’t think anyone would have given it a second look. Who on earth thinks a movie about a character that sets out to get her high school sweetheart back after receiving an announcement about the birth of his first child is a good idea? You spend the entire movie rooting against her, hoping she will be made a fool of. Which thankfully does happen but, she doesn’t seem to learn anything. In the end she gets a pep talk from another character that we are supposed to feel sorry for and she heads back to her fancy life in the big city.

There are some good comical moments in the movie. And there are some moments that do feel true to life. At least she didn’t remember every single person she came across. The parts where she overdressed for everything were amusing. Although I’m not sure how no one ever made an insanely bad come on to her. In the end this movie seemed to be design as an insult to people who live in small towns. Every character was set up as a way of saying anyone who lives in a small town is a loser and only those who get out and go to the big city are worth anything.

I paid matinee price to see “Young Adult” but, the only thing that made it worth it was Charlize Theron. There was nothing all that amazing about her performance but, since she was the movies only saving grace it’s understandable how she got nominated for a Golden Globe.