Cast clicks in blunt, honest 'Young Adult'

In Jason Reitman's acid-laced comedy "Young Adult," Hollywood hottie Charlize Theron attempts to camouflage her sizable sex appeal with sloppy clothes, minimal makeup and a nasty, self-centered attitude.

It almost works.

Despite her best efforts to look ordinary, Theron still sweats estrogen.

She plays Mavis Gary, a thirtysomething author of a series of young adult books that are nearing the end of their run.

A frumpy, disorganized mess, Mavis fills her nonwriting time with booze and one-night stands, traits usually assigned to male characters.

Mavis often hangs out at the mall, lifting quippy dialogue she overhears from teens.

She is also, as we quickly discover, hopelessly trapped in high school.

Ah, the power of high school. It never diminishes, you know.

It's always there, that high school experience, lurking in the recesses of our subconscious, constantly shaping our views of the world and of ourselves.

Like a former star athlete who can never regain the glory days of his high school years, Mavis obsesses over her idealized romance with her high school squeeze Buddy Slade (Patrick Wilson).

One morning she wakes up (next to her latest anonymous sexual conquest) and decides to head back to her small Minnesota hometown to reclaim her relationship with Buddy, despite the fact that he is a happily married man who has just become a doting parent with wife Beth ("Twilight" star Elizabeth Reaser).

Mavis' belief that Buddy belongs to her clearly borders on mental illness, and that becomes the basis for the movie's edgy comic tone.

"I'm a married man!" Buddy shouts to Mavis.

"I know!" she replies. "We can beat this thing together!"

While contemplating her next move, Mavis runs into another former classmate also trapped by his high school memories, but not good ones.

Matt Freehauf (perfectly cast stand-up comic and actor Patton Oswald) walks with a cane because of the harsh, permanent injuries he received from homophobic students who assumed he was gay, beat him up and left him for dead.

Mavis and Matt instantly see through each other. She sees how Matt uses his crippling injuries as an excuse to do nothing with his life.

Matt sees exactly what Mavis wants to do with Buddy and thinks she's insane.

"Young Adult" could easily have become an obvious and maudlin you-can't-go-home-again comedy, except for a couple of factors.

Theron and Oswalt share some real caustic chemistry as their mutual high school crutch bonds them in interesting, unexpected ways.

"Young Adult" also celebrates the reunion of Reitman with his Oscar-winning "Juno" writer (and Lemont native) Diablo Cody, who puts a decidedly unHollywood spin on both her characters and plot.

There might be some rabid fans disappointed that Cody's dialogue in "Young Adult" doesn't duplicate the snarky tone and wisenheimer wit of Ellen Page's title character in "Juno."

But these characters need more direct and honest dialogue, and Cody colors it with moments of heartbreaking candor.

"I think I might be an alcoholic," Mavis tells her parents in a moment of unguarded, genuine self-awareness. This is as close as Mavis comes to asking someone for help. But her parents laugh her suggestion off as a joke.

Theron, who won an Oscar for turning herself into an unattractive serial killer in "Monster," presents Mavis as a class-A "psychotic prom queen," yet allows her humanizing insecurities to bleed through her facade.

But does she learn anything from her experience? Can she become a better person?

In the blunt and searingly honest world of Diablo Cody, Hollywood clichés never win.

“Young Adult”

★ ★ ★ ½

Starring: Charlize Theron, Patrick Wilson, Patton Oswalt, Elizabeth Reaser, Jill Eikenberry

Directed by: Jason Reitman

Other: A Paramount Pictures release. Rated R for language and sexual situations. 93 minutes