Young Adult (2011)
Young Adult Movie Review
Young Adult is a 2011 dramedy film directed by Jason Reitman and starring Charlize Theron, Patton Oswalt and Patrick Wilson. It is such a good, dramatic film.
Young Adult is about an alcoholic 37-year-old woman who is a ghost writer, lives alone and she tries to win back her former boyfriend who is now a married man with children. This is such a relevant, very realistic film with important issues being well explored. I like how it handled its character and her problems. There are many people like her, people who were once popular, but now are alone and resent those who are married and have children and they never faced adulthood in the proper way. That is why this movie is very important to see and I really enjoyed how dramatic and grounded in reality it was.
Mavis Gary is an unusual protagonist and although there are a lot of women like her, this is the first one that I’ve seen in film as Hollywood usually doesn’t portray such characters. I really liked her in spite of her not being a good person. But that is a point, she is a realistic character and there are people like her and I love that the film portrays all kinds of people. But she is still sympathetic near the end and I genuinely felt sorry for her in the scene in which she breaks down in tears. Matt is also really sympathetic, even more so as his fate was really unfortunate. I really liked their relationship here, despite its problematic conclusion, but more on that later. Buddy and Beth are also pretty good and I liked their roles.
Charlize Theron is phenomenal here. This is the best I’ve seen from her thus far as she really delivers a strong performance in a great role. And the casting director did a great job as she was excellent for this role, not only in her talent, but in her looks as well because Mavis is supposed to be pretty. Patrick Wilson is also good and Patton Oswalt is stupendous in his role in which he fits wonderfully.
Young Adult is solidly directed by Reitman and I like its mix of drama and comedy. It is very dramatic and at times emotional, but it also has some really funny moments here and there and I really liked its dark humor. The tone is great. I also liked the dialogue, it isn’t as fantastic as the script demands, but it is still pretty good. The film is also well paced and has just about the right amount of running time.
Now, the problems. As I said before, the relationship between Mavis and Matt is excellent until that last scene of theirs. I honestly found it disappointing that they slept together. I get what they were going for with the scene as it is supposed to be emotional, but I would have liked for them to have just hugged and nothing more. They were great as friends and they should have stayed that way, not to mention that it is entirely out of character for Mavis to sleep with him, despite her emotional state of being at the time. That felt odd and unnecessary. Also, that whole third act is frankly very disappointing. The film never got a proper conclusion and it just sort of ended. I expected much more from it which is why it disappointed me so much as the entire film that came before it was superb. But it is still a really good film that satisfied me for the most part.
