Young Adult

Movie: Young Adult

Genre: Comedy-drama

Synopsis: In a small Minnesota town high school, Mavis (Charlize Theron) was at the top of the food chain.  She was homecoming queen and the envy of everyone.  Her boyfriend was Buddy (Patrick Wilson).  The classic loser-geek was Matt (Patton Oswalt) who had the locker below Mavis’ all through high school.  Fast forward to the present – Mavis is a 37-year-old ghost writer who is miserably unhappy.  She gets it into her head that she is going to return to her hometown and rescue Buddy from his wife and new-born child.  Things do not go as planned.  The only one who really will have anything to do with her Matt – the geeky nerd.  The movie follows her repeated attempts to reclaim Buddy – who does not want to be reclaimed- and her increasing friendship with Matt.

My two cents: I enjoyed this movie – but it was a bit on the dark side.  There are things that make you laugh, but then feel guilty because it is so dark.  An example is the story of how Matt was brutally beaten and maimed when he was in high school.  Doesn’t sound funny – but I found I was chuckling in spite of myself.  Mavis is so unhappy and seems so unable to do anything other than dig herself even deep into her pit of misery. The best scenes are those with Mavis and Patton Oswald’s Matt.  I thought I knew what direction the ending was heading . . . but it took a left turn that left me surprised.

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