Young Adult - B

In theaters. Rated R, 96 minutes. Trailer.

Charlize Theron stars as a shallow, damaged, and beautiful woman (Mavis Gary) battling depression and looking to her high school sweetheart to make her happy. The film is written by Diablo Cody and directed by Jason Reitman. I love dark films and unvarnished renderings of damaged people, but this one didn't deliver nearly as much as I thought it would. Theron is great in a dense and interesting role, but Cody and Reitman leave her floundering in a story that just wallows in her pain, with scene after scene just reinforcing her character. The trailer has most of the funny stuff. Weird movie.