Depressed upon discovering that her former high school beau is happily married with an infant daughter, a young adult fiction writer sets out to win her old boyfriend back in this dark comedy from Jason Reitman and Diablo Cody. For a film marketed as a comedy, the laughs are few and far between, but that is not necessarily a bad thing as 'Young Aduilt' challenges one to think about whether what the authoress is going through is humorous, sad, pathetic, absurd or all of the above. Given how despicable her character is (wanting to tear apart a happy marriage; constantly dismissing an injured former classmate), Charlize Theron miraculously comes off as sympathetic the whole way through. It takes some suspension of disbelief to accept that she really does think that her plan will work, but Theron is always convincing in her quiet scenes and her growing sense of longing and regret is easy to relate to. What also works quite well is how Theron realises for the first time on her quest that the popularity of her book series is truly declining. Her world seems to be coming apart at the seams, and there is also a lot to like in how she uses her quest as fuel for penning her final novel at the same time. The book series is what she has used in order to delude herself into believing that she is still young, and with it on the decline, she finally has to grow up. 'Young Adult' is really a very apt title for the film in this regard. Patton Oswalt delivers has a solid supporting turn here too, but this is Theron's film the whole way as she renders her sour character with a nefarious plan utterly human.
Review of Young Adult
