It’s 1991 and Charlie a nervous and melancholic teenager is praying to make it through his first year in High School in one piece. He’s a really bright kid but such a loner and when he encounters an eccentric live-wire Patrick, a Senior who has been sent down to re-take his junior year, he gravitates to this fellow misfit and the unlikely pair soon become fast friends.
Charlie’s total innocence and his naivete in everything endears him to his worldly new friends, and when he surprisingly steps in to play a lead part in a local production of The Rocky Horror Production, they see him in a totally different light. Especially Mary Elizabeth who mistakenly sees him as her next boyfriend.
For an outwardly nervous kid, Charlie is astonishingly fearless when it comes to helping others, whether it be Candace his elder sister who has an abusive boyfriend, or Patrick who is attacked once his clandestine affair becomes public knowledge. But before Charlie can move forward with his own life, he must deal with his troubling past which ends up hospitalizing him yet again, and when he is finally persuaded to confront his demons everything starts to make sense at last.
It’s an electrifying tale of teen angst where some really bright and gloriously well-rounded adolescents shine getting through high school not just in one piece but in their own eclectic style. The vibrant period music and the clothes may pinpoint the date but the story is timeless, and what sets it apart from other movies of this ilk is the cast of really likable somewhat characters that you cannot help but completely root for.
The movie has another edge in the unusual fact that it was written and directed by Stephen Chbosky from the best-selling novel that he wrote. He chose his actors very well and without a single exception they were all resplendent. Charlie was so convincingly played by Logan Lerman (‘Percy Jackson & The Lightening Thief’), Emma Watson finally forsaken playing ‘Hermione’ in ‘The Harry Potter Saga’ was touching as Sam, and I loved Mae Whitman playing the teenage seductress Mary Elizabeth. There were several adult stars in cameo roles such as Dylan McDermott, Kate Walsh, Melanie Lynsky, Joan Cusack and Paul Rudd but it was young Ezra Miller (‘We Need To Talk About Kevin’) that really shone brightest of them all as the quick-witted and sensitive Patrick in a wonderfully illuminating performance.
Never having read the novel I wasn’t sure what to expect and I must confess that I am a not a big fan of this genre, so I was rather bowled over to discover how much I really enjoyed the entire movie. It’s not often that I end up enviously screaming at the screen ‘I WANNA BE YOUNG AGAIN’ , but I did this time. Several times. The kids lives were far from perfect, but the good ‘bits’ were really fun, and getting through the bad ‘bits’ together was inspiring.
Highly recommended, and now out on DVD , its easy to find.
★★★★★★★★★
Labels: comedy, coming of age, gay, romantic comedy
