Age Versus Maturity
As
we learn in ‘Young Adult’, everyone gets old, but not everyone grows up.
By Matilda Davidson
English Media Block E
Monday April 30, 2012
From
director Jason Reitman (“Juno”, “Up in the Air”, “Thank You for Smoking”) and
writer Diablo Cody, (“Juno”, “Jennifer’s Body”, the upcoming “Evil Dead”
reboot, “United States of Tara”) comes the most underrated comedy of 2011 about
the delicate line between age and maturity and the havoc that can take place on
the brink of it.
The
story at first glance comes off as almost amateur; Mavis Gary (Charlize
Theron), YA fiction ghost-writer and recent divorcee living in Minneapolis
returns to her small-town home with the hopes of winning back her high school
sweetheart, Buddy Slade (Patrick Wilson). The catch? Buddy, in Mavis’s absence,
has become a family man, married and with his first child. If this were any
other movie I would have likely ruined the ending with that last sentence. But
so it goes, that is merely the beginning of Mavis’s journey.
Along
the way she unexpectedly reunites with another classmate from high school, Matt
Freehauf (Patton Oswalt), once the victim of a brutal hate crime that was
quickly forgotten when news got out that he, in fact, wasn’t homosexual, the
supposed rationalization for the attack. Once they get past the initial
awkwardness of Mavis not remembering him until he addresses himself as the
‘hate crime guy’, Matt becomes something of an unsupportive accomplice to
Mavis’s mission. He acts more as the
devil on her shoulder at the beginning of the film, but as time goes on the two
bond over their mutual hatred for the world and their ill-forgotten pasts.
Juxtaposed
all the while to the storyline is Mavis’s task of finishing the last book of a
series that once topped the best-seller list and her ever-present struggle to
learn from the characters she writes about.
A
film like Young Adult is an excellent example of how a black comedy, with the
help of exceptional writing can become a story about one woman’s vast unhappiness
and her misguided search to get it back.
Mavis
is one of the most interesting characters I have watched in a film, to date.
Her snide demeanor and dissatisfaction with the world around her makes it all
the more devastating to witness when she returns to her hometown, where she was
once prom queen and best-dressed, and becomes the person of interest all over
again. The only thing worse than seeing what Mavis is really like behind that
façade, is seeing that the people who bowed down to her before her departure
still do when she returns.
Charlize
Theron, as expected, is fantastic as this character. For a character that’s
meant to be stone–cold and unforgiving, she manages to give Mavis endless
layers of depth while still being the fearsome ex-popular girl that we all know
too well.
Though
this is certainly to the credit of the brilliant writer behind the story,
Diablo Cody. Better known for cheeky, retro-feel comedies such as Juno and
Jennifer’s Body, Young Adult is the first time that we as an audience get to
witness her writing about a scenario that isn’t at all funny. The countless
subtleties are what make this film what it is. It’s dark, it’s bleak and it’s
extremely slow-burn. We cringe and laugh-out-loud equal amounts in a film like
this because, above all else, we can relate to it. It taps into everyone’s
fears and fantasies alike and makes us question what we consider success and
fulfillment.
Jason
Reitman carries you through the story gracefully. While most often, a film
about a washed out prom-queen would seem uninviting, no matter how dark Young
Adult becomes, it never loses its streak of optimism. It’s heartbreaking,
hilarious, bittersweet and all-too-familiar but comes together in a way that is
so succinct to reality that it’s hard not to find common ground with. Young
Adult is at times very difficult to watch, and at others a pleasure, but above
all else it is a film that can connect with it’s audience on a wondrously human
level.
Matilda Davidson, 16
No comments:
Post a Comment