Like Reitman's three previous features -- the critical and commercial hits Thank You for Smoking (2005), which focused on the cigarette lobby; Juno (2007), which dealt with a teenage pregnancy; and Up in the Air (2009), which tackled unemployment -- this highly-anticipated fourth outing tackles difficult subject matter in an often funny way. Theron plays an alcoholic writer of young-adult novels who, on a whim, decides to return to the small town that she left behind years ago to aggressively pursue her ex-boyfriend from high school (Patrick Wilson) -- only, now he is happily married and the father of a young child, which certainly complicates matters, and leads her to another high school classmate (Patton Oswalt), and no shortage of trouble.
We've never seen Theron in a role quite like this before, just as we had never before seen Aaron Eckhart, Ellen Page, or George Clooney in the way that Reitman portrayed them prior to those collaborations. Considering that both Page and Clooney walked away with best actress and best actor Oscar nominations, respectively, one can certainly understand why Theron was willing to give it a shot. Call it "the Reitman touch."
Young Adult reunites Reitman with screenwriter Diablo Cody (who won the best original screenplay Oscar for their last collaboration, Juno), as well as much of the rest of his "stock company" that played such an integral role in making previous films such resounding successes (including cinematographer Eric Steelberg, film editor Dana Glauberman, first assistant director Jason Blumenfeld, and several others). Unlike those earlier films, it will be skipping the festival circuit and going directly for a late-season release.
Watch the trailer after the Jump...
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