The  “Young Adult” (2011)

Directed by Jason Reitman

Starring Charlize Theron, Patton Oswalt, Patrick Wilson and Elizabeth Reaser

Two things drew me to “Young Adult” initially. First, David Bowie’s “Queen Bitch” is used during the film’s trailers and the other was Patton Oswalt’s involvement.  The trailer plays out like a typical romantic comedy, but is a bit deceptive.

Director Jason Reitman has produced consistently enjoyable work, I feel. For “Young Adult,” he reunited with “Juno” screenwriter Diablo Cody to produce the cinematic equivalent of a spiritual bowel movement. I mean that as the greatest possible compliment.

The plot is typical romantic-comedy fare. Charlize Theron’s character, Mavis, is the recently divorced ghost-writer of a failing teen-reader novella series attempting to win back a former love.  She’s drawn away from her metropolitan life in Minneapolis, Minn., to Mercury, Minn., where she was raised.

Except, Mavis was dumped years ago in high school and is trying to steal the love of a happily married man whose family just gave birth to a beautiful child.

“What if there was this woman, this character who is kind of emotionally immature and the happiest she’s ever been in her life was high school?”  Cody said of Mavis.

“What if she’s still kind of stunted and thinks that the only way she can reclaim that happiness is to literally go back and find the man who made her happy then?”

This is soon-discovered duality within the film.

Reitman uses conventional cinematography, and it works. The only conceptual shot shows the inner-workings of a cassette player in Mavis’ car as she plays, rewinds and repeats a single track returning to Mercury, effectively notifying viewers they are witnessing a character study.

Theron is a fantastic actor. She is the epicenter of the film — and I don’t use this analogy as hyperbole.

Through trailers, viewers get the impression of a “woman-child” sort of character in Mavis. The prolonged adolescent character is recurrent in much of modern comedic cinema, though usually it is viewed with a forced pathos, i.e., every male Judd Apatow character.  Mavis is portrayed almost as the “Dee” character of FX’s television program “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia,” with silly optimism in the face of reality.

In one trailer for the film, Mavis says “We can beat this” to her married high-school flame, Buddy, played by Patrick Wilson. The delusion of her character is crystalized as the film progresses.

Theron is not the only character fixed within the past.

The archetypal nerd character is played by Oswalt, and brilliantly.  Those familiar with his comedic work know that he is an avid comic book reader and collector, a film buff, and a Star Wars fanatic. He is a nerd.  But the layering, as with Mavis, of his character — the separation of face from foibles — is traumatic.

Oswalt and Theron conduct careful character expositions, slowly peeling away layers of their subjects’ sanities with varying degrees of mental anguish.

The rest of the cast’s performances should not be discounted.

There is a palpable discomfort shown by the “grown-up” adults when interacting with Mavis.  During a quarrel with Mavis, Elizabeth Reaser, who plays Buddy’s wife, and Collette Wolfe, Mavis’ mother, resemble the victims of a natural disaster. Shaking and quivering in the face of something horrible beyond comprehension.

The use of a sparse soundtrack occurring within the film, through radios and live music played by characters. The use is effective and thematic, as with the song “The Concept” by Teenage Fanclub that plays during the conceptual cassette player shots.

The songs taking place outside the film’s world are what you’d expect to hear play within the mind of a character during a particular scene. Take for example a nervous jazzy piece that plays while Mavis beautifies herself for repeated attempts to take Buddy from his wife. It evoked a sort of illness in action and motivation — another dichotomy in play.

If you are expecting a feel-good, girl-gets-her-way film, stay home. You don’t deserve this movie.

For all the insult of that statement, it may just be compensation for my guilt after viewing “Young Adults.” The film awakened me to much denial within myself.  I don’t think that I’m quite as damaged as some of the film’s characters, but I may be pretty damned close. I turned a film review into a self-examination, didn’t I?

This is a movie for people that are subconsciously begging for the motivation to change. It is another statement that may seem disparaging, initially. I hope it to be interpreted as an honor to Reitman and Cody in creating characters that cause viewers to look inward, and to the cast for giving life to those tragic introspective brainwaves.