YOUNG ADULT ***

"Young Adult"is the category of book that Mavis Gary writes for mainly teenage girls but the title could just as easily apply to Mavis herself, a late thirties-something blonde still suffering some kind of arrested development, leading the life of a slob and drinking a little too much. She is also totally amoral and feels no guilt at all in coming back to the town she loathes so well and trying to break up the obviously happy marriage of former boyfriend Patrick Wilson. As you can guess, this is no ordinary rom-com but a sad/funny and bitter comedy of dysfunction superbly directed by Jason Reitman and with a cracker script, which pulls no punches, by Diablo Cody who wrote JUNO, (this is better). As Mavis, Charlize Theron may give what is a career-best performance. Unlike Aileen Wuornos, Mavis may not actually kill people but she's no less a monster for all that and yet as Patton Oswalt's loser and kindred spirit says 'Guys like me were born to love women like you'. We may never quite find Mavis' heart but it's a testament to the film's genius that we love her all the same.