12-22-11 Movie Review: Young Adult

Since Young Adult is from the same team that brought us Juno, screenwriter Diablo Cody and director Ivan Reitman, I am assuming it is precisely what its creators intended, despite some peculiarities that in another movie might seem like an error. There can be no question about a beautiful performance by Charlize Theron and the other main players, but there is an oddity.

[Wichita show times]

Theron plays a woman of thirty-seven who hears about her married high-school sweetheart’s first child and for reasons obscure decides he was and is the love of her life and sets out to get him back, no matter what. Her methods are far from subtle, and people see what she is up to and largely disapprove, even the old acquaintance she mysteriously chooses to confess everything to from the very start; and she seems consistently unaware that she wears her feelings on her face every time she turns away from her target or her target turns away from her: a head turn a moment too soon would give her away. This creates a rather unbelievable effect, but provides a chance for real showcase acting, and Theron is consistently fascinating to watch, which is well, because few movies are so completely turned over to a single star. She isn’t quite comic and you can’t sympathize with her because she’s so transparently self-oriented, but you will keep wondering how long she’s going to be able to keep this up. All the women seem to see through her, and her light of love, Patrick Wilson, is ambiguous at best, and the confidant Patton Oswalt explicitly represents our point of view. But whatever its peculiarities, Young Adult is worth your time, especially for Charlize Theron’s performance.