In the 2000 movie "Nurse Betty" Renée Zellweger plays Betty Sizemore and the film works as a dark comedy because Betty has lost touch with reality. This movie "Young Adult" did something similar for me.
Charlize Theron is Mavis Gary, a ghost writer of young adult books. The series is winding down, in fact may be dead, but she is working on the last manuscript and is being hounded by the publisher for "pages." As she travels with her laptop, she is fond of creating dialog inspired by what she overhears around her.
Almost 20 years out of high school Mavis gets a birth announcement card from the couple that includes her high school romance, Patrick Wilson as Buddy Slade. Buddy has long ago left the memories of Mavis behind and loves his life as a husband and father. But Mavis (much as Betty Sizemore might have) decides that she and Buddy really do belong together and she will just drive down to the small home town in Minnesota and reclaim Buddy for herself.
The third key character is Patton Oswalt as Matt Freehauf. He was the fat kid everyone picked on in high school, and apparently Mavis also gave him a very hard time which she either conveniently forgot, or in her skewed view of things rationalized that Matt deserved all the mistreatment he received. Even the beating by the high school jocks because they thought he was gay, a beating that left him partially disabled as an adult, and with a badly bent, partially functioning sex member. Mavis wonders aloud why he doesn't just get over it, after all it happened a long time ago.
Mavis is definitely not plugged in to reality, and for me this created a lot of laughs, the absurdity of the things she would do or say. She definitely had some serious emotional issues.
As most of us know Charlize Theron is a super actress, and I admire the range of roles she has created over her acting career. This is a good one to add to that list, she is superb. I was also impressed with Patton Oswald, his Matt made a very interesting odd couple with Mavis as she marched on in her misguided attempt at happiness.
Charlize Theron is Mavis Gary, a ghost writer of young adult books. The series is winding down, in fact may be dead, but she is working on the last manuscript and is being hounded by the publisher for "pages." As she travels with her laptop, she is fond of creating dialog inspired by what she overhears around her.
Almost 20 years out of high school Mavis gets a birth announcement card from the couple that includes her high school romance, Patrick Wilson as Buddy Slade. Buddy has long ago left the memories of Mavis behind and loves his life as a husband and father. But Mavis (much as Betty Sizemore might have) decides that she and Buddy really do belong together and she will just drive down to the small home town in Minnesota and reclaim Buddy for herself.
The third key character is Patton Oswalt as Matt Freehauf. He was the fat kid everyone picked on in high school, and apparently Mavis also gave him a very hard time which she either conveniently forgot, or in her skewed view of things rationalized that Matt deserved all the mistreatment he received. Even the beating by the high school jocks because they thought he was gay, a beating that left him partially disabled as an adult, and with a badly bent, partially functioning sex member. Mavis wonders aloud why he doesn't just get over it, after all it happened a long time ago.
Mavis is definitely not plugged in to reality, and for me this created a lot of laughs, the absurdity of the things she would do or say. She definitely had some serious emotional issues.
As most of us know Charlize Theron is a super actress, and I admire the range of roles she has created over her acting career. This is a good one to add to that list, she is superb. I was also impressed with Patton Oswald, his Matt made a very interesting odd couple with Mavis as she marched on in her misguided attempt at happiness.