Young Adult Review: The Church of Cynicism

I wasn’t sure what to expect when I settled into my screening of Young Adult. I mean, sure. It’s Diablo Cody, and as someone fortunate enough not to have seen Jennifer’s Body, her sophomore box office disaster, I only have fond,Juno-type impressions of her work. It’s also directed by Jason Reitman, which is almost never a bad thing.

Young Adult is quirky and strange, and at times so uncomfortable it made me cringe. Those elements reminded me of Juno (a masterpiece of a screenplay, in this girl’s opinion), but Young Adult lacks the charm and goodhearted nature of Cody’s Oscar winner, refusing to leave the audience feeling as though maybe, just maybe, life can bring joy along with pain.

As you may or may not be aware, I write young adult fiction (YA, for short), which is Charlize Theron’s character’s profession in the film. There has been some concern in the YA community about whether or not the character is purported to write fiction for teens because she’s immature, an insinuation most of us don’t appreciate (though it may, in some cases, be true), and a worry that her “growing up” will be paired with a decision to write fiction for adults instead.

I can assure you this is not the case, mainly because Mavis Gary (Charlize Theron) never grows over the course of the movie, or learns much of anything at all.

Mavis, once a beautiful, popular cheerleader on the arm of the nicest, hottest guy in school, left her small town behind for the glamorous life of an author in Minneapolis (or the “Mini-Apple,” as her hometown friends refer to it). They might think she’s made it to the big time, but as viewers we see a woman who drinks too much, sleeps around, pulls out her hair, and neglects her dog, her apartment, and herself to filthy, scary degrees. She’s teetering on the brink, with her agent and/or editor leaving messages asking for the draft of the final novel in a series – which she hasn’t even started.

Mavis topples over the (very near) edge of her sanity when her ex-boyfriend’s wife sends a birth announcement for their daughter. Sure that Buddy (Patrick Wilson) is suffocating and miserable with a wife, a boring job, and a new baby in Mercury, MN, Mavis embarks on an impromptu road trip home under the guise of concluding a real estate deal, but with every intention of rescuing her first love from his terrible, suburban fate.

Once in town, she leaves Buddy a message and then heads out to chug unbelievable amounts of bourbon at one of her old hangouts. There she runs into Matt (Patton Oswalt) a boy she barely remembers even though his locker was right next to hers all through high school. She confesses to him the real reason she’s back in town, a course of action he strongly advises against, not that she listens.

Over the next several days Mavis asserts herself back into Buddy’s life, first with drinks, then dinner with his family and out to watch his wife Beth’s (Elizabeth Reaser) band play, and finally to the baby’s naming ceremony, where all hell breaks loose. Seriously, it’s like the worst rejection nightmare imaginable, and it just won’t end even though in your mind you’re screaming for the love of everything holy woman shut up and run away and try not to kill yourself when you think of this day later.

Matt is there the whole time, kind of reprising his role of science geek panting after the hot cheerleader, trying to guide her in the right direction. He flat out tells Mavis she’s mentally ill (she is) and that she should seek professional help (she should). When Mavis hits rock bottom, he’s standing there to catch her, or at least make it so she’s not completely and utterly alone.

This movie is depressing, uncomfortable, and hard to watch. Without Diablo Cody’s deft skill for brushing unlikable characters and impossible situations with strokes of dark comedy, audiences might not have been able to stomach it at all. Instead we’re gifted with an hour and a half of fascinating story seen through glasses that are tinted by cynicism as opposed to anything remotely rose-colored.

This is a small film about one woman; essentially it’s a character study that shoves Mavis under a microscope. Charlize Theron does a nice job with the broken character, and she certainly isn’t afraid to look like a hot mess through 80% of the movie. The other characters aren’t well developed, they don’t even try to be, and we don’t get to understand anyone but her. This fact would normally bother me more, but because I’m so wrapped up in staring relentlessly at this train wreck of a woman, waiting for her to realize what a train wreck she is (which is a moment that never comes), I noted the lack of secondary characters as an afterthought. The town of Mercury is also flat, dressed up like a cardboard cutout where thirty something happiness and success is defined by marriage, family, and a house to cram all of your crap inside. But the movie isn’t about them. It’s about her, and how she defines success and happiness.

If only she knew.

We’re so inundated with stories and films where the entire point is the growth of a character. As a writer, that’s what I strive to write – characters that grow and change and learn from the experiences surrounding and affecting them. That is not, however, real life. I know many, many people who haven’t changed since high school, who have never looked beyond the end of their noses or assumed that there was more to life than what their parents’ modeled for them. Mavis Gary is a (very sad) human being. At the end of the film we’re left with an inkling, the smallest glimmer of hope, that perhaps she’s begun to realize this fact after all.

True, it’s not particularly moving to see reality, in all of its stark hopelessness, splashed across a huge screen for a couple of hours. I didn’t leave the theatre with a smile, or well-earned tears.

I did leave with a head full of thoughts, though, and the willingness to examine my own life a little bit closer.

And that’s a worthwhile use of my time as well.

Pictures Courtesy of Paramount Pictures