Young Adult - review - Film - Arts

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Mavis Gary (Theron) heads off for her provincial hometown from smart Minneapolis determined to seek out her high-school boyfriend Buddy (Patrick Wilson) and save him both from a life of futility but principally for herself.

In the absence of any other highlights in her increasingly empty life, she thinks she is still in love with him and it really doesn't matter that he is not only married to a nice girl (Elizabeth Reaser) but also dotes on their first child. She's out to get him no matter what her friend (Patton Oswalt) says.

She is a first-class bitch but also one you can't help feeling for - a beautiful ex-prom queen who has gradually found her life is both meaningless and stupid. Cody and Reitman have concocted a slyly funny if sad progress, illuminated by a performance from Theron that hits exactly the right note of forlorn selfishness.

She is aided by good performances all round but none better than that of Oswalt as her pudgy new friend. Here is a film that could have been awful but is so carefully nuanced that it is one of the most satisfying of the year.