Young Adult

My Grade:  B

I love Up in the Air and I like Juno, so when the director of Up in the Air (Jason Reitman) and the writer of Juno (Diablo Cody) came together for Young Adult, I was thrilled.  As a side note, they worked together on Juno as well.  To be honest, the film didn’t exceed or fail to live up to my expectations; which doesn’t happen very often.  Young Adult is just about as good as I expected but not one of my favorites of the year.  The standout thing in this film is Patton Oswalt and portions of the writing (only portions).

    

The story has all the makings of a bleak dramedy but is relatively original.  This is a story that we don’t see everyday and it does more in the drama department than the comedy department.  I think it is meant to be funnier than it actually is, but the drama is good.

    

The drama is fueled by strong dialogue and characters with depressing backstories.  The depressing backstories aren’t necessarily the best way to amp up the drama, but it does the trick in Young Adult.  Mavis (Charlize Theron) and Matt (Patton Oswalt) have both been through a lot and we feel kind of bad for them.  Empathy would be a better emotion to evoke about the main characters, but we have to settle for pity in this film.

    

The writing, as I mentioned earlier, is strong in portions.  The flow of the story and how Mavis tries to win Buddy’s (Patrick Wilson) heart is not one of those portions.  It gets pretty cheesy at times and feels uneven.  If I were to get into specifics of the ups and downs that aren’t entirely believable, I would have to type those two words that I try to stay away from:  Spoiler Alert (I typed them anyway... Oh well).  So once you see the film, you will see what I mean.

    

The strong portions of the writing are mostly in the scenes between Mavis and Matt.  These two characters are well developed and they share some spectacular scenes.  The way they ended up hanging out is a bit of a stretch, but I am glad they did.

      

Two lines in particular that blew me away were both delivered by the very talented Patton Oswalt as Matt.  Once he tells Mavis that “men like me are born loving women like you.”  This is a very touching moment that leads to an awkward but even more touching moment.  The other stellar line is when Mavis tells Matt that he knew her when she was at her best (high school).  He replies by telling her that she wasn’t at her best because she looked at herself in a little mirror in her locker more than she ever looked at him... and he was at his best.  Their lockers were right next to each other.  Those with more emotional tendencies may even shed a tear at this scene.  I didn’t, but I thought about it.

    

If you didn’t realize it by now, Patton Oswalt stole this movie.  Charlize Theron is the one that was nominated for a Golden Globe from this film, and she is very good.  But Oswalt brought his A game with a serious turn, despite usually doing goofy comedies.  He is certainly helped out by having a robust character to play.

    

The ending of this film may not leave some people satisfied, but it is a good ending.  Again, I don’t want to spoil anything because this film is certainly worth seeing; but, the ending does feel a little abrupt and depressing until you think about it.  Then you realize it is actually uplifting in its own way.  And you couldn’t expect a stereotypical, happy, hollywood ending because Up in the Air didn’t have it and “Juno” stayed off the beaten path, too.

    

Overall, I would suggest this film because it is a break from the dregs of sequels, prequels, reboots, remakes, and adaptations that hit theaters every week.  And it is a good film.  Just be advised that if you are looking for am escapist comedy, this isn’t the movie for you.  This is mostly a drama with some comedy thrown in... and it is relatively dark comedy.