Young Adult

It’s not horribly far-fetched to envision Mavis Gary as an age-progressed version of Juno MacGuff.

The female protagonists from the two offbeat collaborations between Oscar-winning screenwriter Diablo Cody and director Jason Reitman — the former in Young Adult, the latter in Juno — are at least kindred spirits with their cynical outlooks moderated by clumsy good intentions.

Both films are set in Minnesota, to boot, and while Young Adult doesn’t have the exhilarating originality as Juno, it does have some moments of quirky humor that will make viewers both laugh and squirm.

The film stars Charlize Theron as Mavis, a successful Minneapolis author of vacuous teen fiction who, shortly after a divorce, returns to her small hometown for the naming ceremony of a baby born to her high school sweetheart (Patrick Wilson).

The motive of the trip is not one of congratulations, however, but a clumsy and desperate attempt to win back her ex-boyfriend, who’s now happily married and certainly not interested. So Mavis turns to her new confidant, Matt (Patton Oswalt), an outcast from their days as classmates who still harbors his own grudge from his teenage years.

Cody’s script is a character study of arrested development that hits more than it misses, with her sharp-tongued dialogue and black-comic scenarios turning Mavis’ ill-conceived scheme into a desperate cry for attention.

Theron, meanwhile, seems to have fun in a role that requires both a broad comedic touch and an ability for deeper exploration of a character suffering what amounts to a nervous breakdown. She brings empathy to a character that could have turned just bumbling and pathetic.

Reitman (Up in the Air) shares Cody’s sensibilities, and supplies an even-handed direction that complements both his script and his lead actress.

Yet despite its playful concept, the film never really achieves a satisfactory resolution or supplies a deeper motivation for Mavis’ bizarre behavior. Some of her eccentricities require a significant suspension of disbelief.

Still, taken as a slight comedy, Young Adult is the type of film that features small-town weirdos so screwed up that it might make audiences feel better about themselves by comparison.

Rated R, 93 minutes.