Directed by: Jason Reitman
Starring: Charlize Theron, Patrick Wilson, Patton Oswalt
Screenwriter Diablo Cody is often criticised for writing teenage characters who talk like they're middle aged. Fitting then that her latest script is about middle-aged people who behave like teenagers.
Theron is by far the best thing about this, genuinely scary as a semi successful writer of young adult fiction who returns to her home town to seduce her teen love Wilson. The fact he seems happily married with a newborn daughter is just a minor obstacle as far as she is concerned.
For me, this needed to be a much darker film but it never gets scathing enough. It seemed like the perfect opportunity for a Todd Solondz style examination of both snobbery and small-town attitudes. Oswalt's character suffers from penile dysfunction due to being beaten to a pulp as a teen by local jocks who thought he was gay. How much more interesting would it have been if Wilson's character had been one of the perpetrators?
There are a lot of inconsistencies through the script; at a midway point Theron and Wilson lock lips yet it never gets mentioned again despite a climatic scene where Theron is trying to convince Wilson's wife that he still wants her.
I'm sure this will be one of the better comedies of the year but essentially it's just an average entry into the reunion genre, check out "Grosse Point Blank" for a better attempt at this sort of yarn. Seeing as the Oscar panel don't know who Elizabeth Olsen is though I'd have to recommend Theron for a statuette.
5/10
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