Director Jason Reitman has a strong track record of making great movies - Juno, Up in the Air and Thank You for Smoking - and Young Adult is a bit low-key, but still amazing. This is the first time that Reitman collaborates with fellow Canadian, screenwriter Diablo Cody since Juno which won the latter an Oscar in 2007. I don't think this movie will win any Oscars for the talented pair, particularly for Cody, but it's still a good movie because it's so non-traditional.
The movie is really about a character study of the protagonist Mavis (played by Theron) who is very unhappy from beginning to end. Ever since high school, she has been searching for the unattainable, and, as a result, she is mean to everybody and suffers from a chronic depression. Most heroines, no matter how mean they were at the beginning of the movie, become much better at the end. But not this one, and the ending is as depressing as the beginning. Reitman makes the audience follow Mavis inside her mind - her goal to leave small town Mercury for a city life in Minneapolis; her failed marriage; her unhealthy relationship with her parents; the lack of girlfriends or any friends in her life; her alcoholism, mental imbalance and self denial. Theron is one of the best contemporary actors we have and once again, she's proven herself to be capable of going anywhere on the big screen in spite of her super glamorous looks.
The only sort of 'friend' of Mavis in the movie is Matt, the 'hate crime' guy in the movie (played by Patton Oswalt). He is the only companion who lectures Mavis about what's right and wrong, and is the voice of reason in the entire movie. But the irony is that Matt is also grossly misunderstood - he's severely beaten up when he was at high school because his school mates thought he's gay but he really isn't. Only Mavis understands him and even speaks up in his defence for more than once. The two unhappy souls console each other throughout the movie during difficult times and try to outdrink each other. It's tragic to see Mavis eventually sleeping with Matt after unsuccessfully trying to seduce her highschool sweetheart Buddy (played by Patrick Wilson). Is that out of sympathy or just because she's frustrated and drunk?
The key takeaway from this movie is that happiness is really derived from very simple things in life - it's a state of mind and the importance of mental health is, as always, underrecognized.
There's always a moral to any story and you've found it. I too have heard only negative things about this film, but think it's worth the watch having read your review. Might make for a good rainy day movie.
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