The Perks of Being a Wallflower (2012) - Film Review

Director: Stephen Chbosky

Cast: Logan Lerman, Emma Watson, Ezra Miller, Paul Rudd, Mae Whitman, Nina Dobrev, Kate Walsh, Dylan McDermott,

 

MPAA Rating: Rated PG13 for  appeal for mature thematic material, drug and alcohol use, sexual content including references, and a fight - all involving teens

 

An introvert freshman is taken under the wings of two seniors who welcome him to the real world.

 

 

 

 

                                 "This one moment when you know you're not a sad story. You are alive, and you stand up and see the lights on the buildings and everything that makes you wonder. And you're listening to that song and that drive with the people you love most in this world. And in this moment I swear, we are infinite."

 

                   This quotes sums up what "The Perks of Being a Wallflower" is. The film follows Charlie (Logan Lerman) as he tries to break out of his shell his first yeear of high school. Right off the bat, I've never read this book I have never even heard of this book before the first trailer came out. I guess it was before my time. The trailer alone is what sold me, the film seemed to give a more real depiction of what high school and life in general is truly about. I ended up really liking this movie, it was definitely enjoyable experience to watch but in the long run it had some problems in the overall product of this film.

                     The film is directed by Stephen Chbosky. Stephen Chbosky is also the writer of the original book, and I applaud what he did with this film. I've always felt like authors should have some type of creative control over the production of the film based on their book. Just imagine if JK Rowling would have written the Harry Potter films and just how much better they could have been. They understand the material on a level that no other director/screen writing duo could ever understand. This was also the first time he's ever directed a film and he did a really good job. A lot of the shots and the tone did a good job setting up the film. The script didn't require anything truly incredible directing wise but it was good overall. The script is where I had my most problems with the film. The script is good don't get me wrong but its some of the story elements that are introduced that get me.

                        The first one is that their is a sub-plot story element introduced at the start of the film. We are never truly given the ending to the storyline only given a brief mentioned in narration by Charlie about it. I understand with writing a film based on a movie some stuff has to be left out, but I believe if you couldn't give a good amount to that story then you shouldn't have used it in the film to begin with. Another thing script wise is the character motivations, throughout the film there are a few motivational reason why certain characters do certain things that catch me off guard as they wouldn't do that in real life or how the story had portrayed them to that certain point. The last thing was the main sub-plot focused on Ezra's Miller character "Patrick." Most people are gonna see this as me going off onto a tangent about the plot but its more in the execution of the plot, all prejudice aside. The whole forbidden love romance they feature with his character is cliched down to the bone. Everything that happened throughout the storyline, I predicted would happen and I wish while the rest of the film felt fresh and original they would have done something bigger with that storyline.

                           With all the script bashing aside, the film does some very good things that most films centered on high school don't usually do. All the characters even Patrick's character in the main storyline had depth. You cared about all these characters and what was happening with them. They are also very relatable, even if you hadn't been in their situation before you can still feel some relatability with them. The dialouge is very quotable as well. A lot of times you don't see dialouge as memorable in this film. It gives you and even more deepr look into these casts of characters. The main thing that anchors the film is the performance of Logan Lerman as Charlie. He portrays every part of Charlie's character perfect, this is definitely the performane of his career and look forward to seeing him in more stuff. Ezra Miller does the best with his character that is given to him as I believe most of his character to be cliched. Emma Watson was more of a tricky situation, her character which was suppose to be wild and crazy felt very forced at the beginning, but as the film continues and her character gets more to do, she begins holding her own with the rest of the cast in the second half. She also had really good chemistry with Logan Lerman's character at what their relationship went through felt very realistic and I liked that, that it wasn't the normal romance plot. That goes with my whole feeling of the film as a whole being very fresh.

                             Overall, "The Perks of Being a Wallflower" is a very deep, impressive look into what truly goes on in the high school environment. The film features some great overall performances (Logan Lerman, Ezra Miller, Emma Watson, Paul Rudd, Mae Whitman, and Nina Dobrev) all do very well in this film. The directing of the film is good, with a few script and pacing problems but I understand some of the things in the book not making it into the film, and I can give them a pass on that as adapting a book is a very hard job. I recommend if you can find this film at a theater, good luck I found it at one in a 50 mile radius. Then see this film, it's definitely one you want wanna miss.

                           

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Final Grade: B+