Review: 'Young Adult'

To take away the idea of the head from the very beginning, we must confess that seeing the blonde Charlize TheronCharlize Theron playing a compelling existential crisis in the middle thirties, which is given to drink and wakes up every day in her apartment with her ​​clothes on, immediately referred us to "Bad Teacher", a recent comedy in which Cameron Diaz made ​​a similar character.

Before moviegoers put the outcry for precisely that Diaz was a dilapidated nonsense by critics (and however as we liked, as can be noted in this review), while the " Young Adult "is a film 'respectable' which is directed by Ivan ReitmanIvan Reitman (" Juno, "" Up in the Air ") and written by Diablo Cody (of the same "Juno"), recognize that this new production is better ... but be sure to remind the former.

"Young Adult" opens today in limited supply in Los Angeles and New York, and goes nationwide in the United States on Friday. In it, Theron ("The Devil's Advocate", "Monster") is Mavis Gary, a woman who was very popular at school through their unquestionable physical attractiveness, and then had his fifteen minutes of fame due to the creation of a series Teen novels (hence the "young adult" title, but the issue goes beyond). The problem is that books are no longer sold, although she insists on believing otherwise.

Without further horizons in life, with the mentality of a teenager and a failed marriage behind her, Mavis spends his days and nights, watching TV, drinking Coca-Cola, getting drunk and trying sovereign occasionally write a line. Do not really understand what he lives, but we imagine that still receives the occasional royalty check, and the truth is that your level of existence is not exactly demanding, at the expense of what he tells everyone.

The lack of prospects for Mavis is most evident at the time you decide to return to his hometown to try to regain the love of Bunny Slade (Patrick Wilson), his school sweetheart, who is now married to Beth (Elizabeth Reaser) and just had her first child. In the course of the adventure, Mavis also reunites Matt Freehauf (Patton Oswalt), another former teammate from high school, this time with overweight and physical disabilities (but with a charisma of 'nerd' exceeded that becomes one of the Best Bets of the story).

For one reason or another, the plot does not sound really new, and makes us feel we know what will happen in it. And while expectations are more or less confirmed when you see the movie, "Young Adult" still retains a freshness and charm that owed ​​much to his well crafted, the intervention achieved its distribution (Theron is just great) and, of course, the presence of a sense of humor, without being always explosive, is able to trigger laughter.

Reitman and Cody have been concerned to develop a modern film and sensitivity mark consciously 'indie', as tested from the opening credits, Mavis accompanying on his return to the town of Mercury, in Minnesota, while listening in your car an old cassette with a song that repeats again and again: "The Concept" by Teenage Fanclub.

As the song ends and restarts (this girl is a fan), the images show the reel of tape in motion, something that does not really work as a contribution to narrative, but it is at least an original way to start the movie .

This is the only 'slip' visual Reitman, who during the rest of the film is dedicated to film simply and concisely what happens to the characters, without making cuts or look away at times when Mavis placed in embarrassing situations really due to excessive drinking, which could be from and the strongest warning that can be done against alcoholism in women beautiful.

But none of this leads to neglect of good music, which circulates freely in several of the scenes of the film, even in the bewildering sequence in which the rock band Buddy's wife (made entirely by mothers) will gives the player an unpleasant surprise.

The film also has a curious advertising management, as already noted, Mavis is an avid consumer of certain soft drink (as 'light' version, of course), and on arriving at Mercury , you realize that the supposed progress of the place is reflected in the opening of some major fast food chains and stores. All these places and products are shown very clearly, with their names on high, but this does not mean to promote their use, since the treatment given to them is obviously ironic.

No film is required to have a message, and that is why, without giving details about it, "Young Adult" does not provide definitive answers to the dilemmas of Mavis or redemption requires the typical Hollywood. But there's a moment that brings up some problems with a conversation that is not entirely convincing, and then leaves the feeling that it is an entertaining film with many interesting features, but not a masterpiece.