Director Jason Reitman has a gift: take a less-than-perfect human being and put them through the emotional ringer, leaving them just improved enough that we know, in the lifetime they’ll spend off-screen, they’ll be better people. Aaron Eckhart’s Big Tobacco frontman in Thank You For Smoking, Ellen Page’s fast-talking pregnant teen in Juno and George Clooney’s emotionally homeless motivational speaker in Up in the Air—all three-dimensional portraits with expansive arcs.
His next film, Young Adult, reunites the director with Oscar-winning Juno screenwriter Diablo Cody and stars Charlize Theron (Hancock, The Road and Oscar winner for Monster) as an alcoholic, young adult fiction writer who returns to her home town to reignite the sparks with her now-married high school boyfriend (played by Patrick Wilson). Reitman has his work cut out for him, tackling one of the more morally reprehensible characters he’s ever painted, but with an actress like Theron, Young Adult has a chance to be his best movie to date.
The first poster for the film has popped up online and gives you an idea of the balance between real life horrors and Cody’s signature brand of comedy. The movie is set to hit theaters December 16.
