Source: imdb.com
By Jennifer Angelo
Grab your popcorn and soda, settle into that big comfy chair and prepare to be transported back in time back to your own adolescence with “The Perks of Being a Wallflower.”
Relive your “firsts” vicariously through Charlie, played by Logan Lerman, a fifteen-year-old boy entering his first year of high school; get high for the first time, have your first beer, your first kiss, fall in love for the first time.
Confiding in an anonymous source by letter, Charlie narrates the movie. It tracks his growth and change as well as the bonds he forms over the course of his freshman year.
The audience is introduced to both his friends and family, giving insight into Charlie’s beautiful, yet damaged mind. The loss of loved ones throughout his life has caused a disconnection between him and the outside world.
His growing friendship with Patrick, played by Ezra Miller, a boy from his shop class, and Patrick’s step-sister, Sam, played by Emma Watson, is the beginning of his path to normalcy and inner peace.
Charlie’s friends – though all much older – see him for who he really is, and quickly come to accept him in a way no one has. “You see things and you understand. You’re a wallflower…”
The movie was directed and written by Stephen Chbosky, author of the 1999 book the movie was based on.
The movie follows the book closely, but seems a little uneven; some scenes are beautifully done, and others lose some of the context from the book which made it special.
It was filmed in choppy, sequential scenes with bits of Charlie’s past memories interwoven, making it seem ironically artistic, almost indie.
While each character is easily relatable superficially, the fun-loving stoner, or the beautiful broken girl, there was a certain two dimensionality to everyone.
Still, no matter how long ago high school was for you, this movie reminds us that we all went through it. Within all the bad, there is good, and with the help of a few good friends anyone can take on the world.