Every generation needs
a coming-of-age movie. From Rebel Without
A Cause through American Graffiti
and Fast Times At Ridgemont High to The Breakfast Club and Dazed And Confused, high school years
are so intensely formative and life-changing that they have made for richly
fertile cinematic ground for decades. Directing the adaptation of his own
novel, for which he also wrote the screenplay, Stephen Chbosky has crafted a film
in The Perks Of Being A Wallflower
that will stand up to the very best of the genre for legions of young people to
find meaning in.
Although it’s hard to
imagine the three leads, attractive as they are, ever being considered to be
wallflowers at any high school across the US, they successfully convince the audience that
they belong to “the island of misfit toys” – Logan Lerman plays the lead
character Charlie, an introverted freshman who begins the film with no friends
and hints at a traumatic period which he has only just begun to get over, with
Ezra Miller and Emma Watson playing Patrick and Sam, extroverted step-siblings
who don’t fit into any of the standardised cliques and so rule over their own group.
Patrick is gay and has been hooking up with a jock football player who doesn’t
want anyone to know that he likes men, while Sam seems sweet but, in her own way, is
just as damaged as Charlie. They take him under their wing during their senior
year, introducing him to the common experiences that most high-schoolers go
through around the same age – first kisses, first drug usage, first dances and
so on. They help him learn those important and valuable lessons about himself
that every coming-of-age film likes to focus on, while becoming a key source of
support for them as well.
It’s true that the film
borders on kitsch at times, but it doesn’t matter – have any high-school age
kids ever expressed themselves meaningfully in the way that they always seem to
be able to manage in films? Even though phrases like “I feel infinite” jar when
you hear them, the actors and characters are strong enough and the film moves
swiftly along enough to ensure that these small missteps don’t linger in the
memory. This is more of a character study, although tantalising flashbacks that
show a younger Charlie and his interactions with his aunt promise and
eventually much more, lending the film a much darker tone that might have been
perceived from its promotion.
Miller and Watson,
coming off the back of playing the psychopathic title character in We Need To Talk About Kevin and the
straight-laced Hermione in the Harry
Potter series respectively, are still playing school-age characters but dig
into their parts with relish and skill. The flamboyant gay friend is often a
thankless role but in Miller’s hands it becomes nuanced and touching and, while
Watson may never escape Hermione (and especially if she doesn’t start taking on
roles that can’t be compared to the character), her haltingly emotional scenes
alone with Lerman demonstrate that she has already begun to grow as an actress.
With the main three supported notably by Paul Rudd playing it straight as
Charlie’s insightful and encouraging English teacher, the cast as a whole more
than does justice to Chbosky’s story – while they may never entirely convince
as wallflowers, they show that there are undeniably perks to being one.
4/5
