And so concludes our quartet of films in limited release, but unlike Melancholia, A Dangerous Method, or Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, I would strongly recommend this movie with no hesitations. This is a lock for my “Ten Best of the Year List.”
Young Adult stars Charlize Theron as a young adult book author (or ghost writer) who–in a drunken depression–decides to go back to her hometown in Nowheresville, Minnesota to break up the marriage of her high school sweetheart and win him back. Then he can leave his wife and newborn baby to come live with her in the big city of…Minneapolis.
What Works: The performances are uniformly strong, from Patton Oswalt (who actually came and did a Q&A after the movie was over at the screening I attended) as a high school classmate Theron befriends to the deliberately-bland Patrick Wilson as the one Theron thinks got away. But no one is better than Theron herself. Although many critics seem to think her character is morally reprehensible, I didn’t, and actually liked her. I feel like only Theron–one of the only actresses that can appear simultaneously hateful and vulnerable–could have done that. Her character is mean, depressed, lonely, sad, funny, bitter, and sexy…I can’t think of another performance this year I can say that about. She may be scheming but her schemes are for the last bit of heart she has left, and there’s a sunny optimism to her deviousness that was hard (for me at least) to resist. Theron’s character really isn’t a bad person, she’s just a person, and it’s pretty refreshing to see a movie get that. [Note to Bad Teacher: THIS is how a complicated, not-entirely-nice female lead character is done.]
What Doesn’t Work: This movie isn’t as good as the director, Jason Reitman’s last movie, the excellent Up in the Air (which I thought was the best movie of 2009) but other than that who gives a shit? I have seen so many clunkers this year–it truly is one of the worst years for movies I can ever remember–that I feel no need to split hairs with one of the best five movies I’ve seen this year. Last year had great animated movies (Toy Story 3), great action movies (Inception), great documentaries (Casino Jack), great crime films (The Town, Winter’s Bone) and great dramas (The Social Network). This year has none of them. So I’ll settle for one almost-great comedy.
What I Would Have Done Differently: Shown up a little bit earlier and gotten better seats that weren’t so close to the screen. But as for what I would have done differently on the screen…not a lot.
I loved the movie – is was very real
Charlize Theron deserves a Oscar nominee.
Great review