An average movie

Starting with 3 critical successes in a row, it seemed that Jason Reitman could do no wrong and was set to become one of the most exciting directors at work nowadays. However, his impressive progression seemed to have slow down with this 4th directing effort which didn’t get much love when it was eventually released. To start with, in his previous movies, the main character was flawed but still likeable whereas, here, even though Charlize Theron gave a fearless performance which was universally heralded, she was basically a selfish obnoxious bitch so the whole thing was harder to sell. But that wasn’t the main issue, in my opinion, the main problem was that it took way too long before she realized how insane her whole plan was. Even though the outcome was pretty obvious (except for Mavis), the way it was handled by her ex and his friends was actually quite subtle and sensitive and it was definitely one of the best moments in the movie. Patton Oswalt was also very good as a rather unlikely ally and he managed to counter-balance Mavis’ awful behavior. Eventually, the girl was a mess in high-school, a popular girl, but still a mess, and after all these years, she is still an egocentric bitch and the ending of the movie shows that she didn’t learn anything from this journey so why should we care at all? Anyway, to conclude, even though the whole thing had some potential , it didn’t really work out but I still think it is worth a look, especially if you enjoyed Jason Reitman’s previous movies.

6/10