Please, no more Young Adult

I had high expectations before watching Young Adult. I mean, how can you go wrong with Charlize Theron? No criticism for the acting - that was well done, but I just couldn't find myself interested in the movie. What really sticks out for me is that we're forced to reconnect with people from a past (we) have no knowledge of; no concrete back story is revealed, other than what's told through the course of the film. It's hard to empathize with Mavis, which I suppose is the point.

In a way it's kinda nice that we're tagging along with someone who's never going to come out as a hero, but it's mostly depressing. Everyone grew up, then Mavis decides one day to back-track just because her old ex-boyfriend just had a baby. (Somehow she takes this as a signal that he wants her back in his life.) So she returns to her hometown and becomes the same self-absorbed person she was in high school. It's a sad train wreck, with occasional chuckles: 3/5 stars.