The Perks of Being a Wallflower

Film (2012)

With Logan Lerman (Charlie), Emma Watson (Sam), Ezra Miller (Patrick), Paul Rudd (Mr. Anderson), Joan Cusack (Dr. Burton), Melanie Lynskey (Aunt Helen), Dylan McDermott (Father), Kate Walsh (Mother), Johnny Simmons (Brad), Nina Dobrev (Candace), Nicholas Braun (Ponytail Derek), Mae Whitman (Mary Elizabeth)

Charlie is a new freshman in high school. He’s shy, vulnerable and scorned. But, through hook or crook, he falls in with a crowd of “wallflowers,” of kids who regards themselves as misfits, and develops signficant companionship. He discovers, as a result, connections, affections, and a bit of self-confidence. He also has a recent history of some psychological vulnerabilities, and, as things develop, one begins to understand the dimensions of his sufferings.

This wonderful film might seem, on the surface, to be a kind of facile romp like Fast Times at Ridgemont High (1982), but it is very different from that. Alternatively, it gives some of the sense of other good coming of age tales like Diner (1982) directed by Barry Levinson, Stand By Me (1986) directed by Rob Reiner, or Dead Poets Society (1989) directed by Peter Weir, and has an equally ambitious dramatic range.

The script is beautifully written, and, in its interesting takeoff on high school tales, draws quite a bit of emotion. I found myself quite affected by it.

Logan Lerman as Charlie is very effective. It is a tricky role to play, since it hovers between isolation and emergence and does so at various levels of intoxication and psychological instability.

Emma Watson, famously seen as Hermione in the entire Harry Potter series, does a fabulous job here. She’s totally convincing as the adorable and sexy but vulnerably offbeat female focus of Charlie’s high school universe. She brings that serious gaze that we know so well from her Hermione years, but not in a mechanical way. She delivers a complex and subtle performance, and continues to have a magnetic screen persona.

Ezra Miller as Patrick is a great, flamboyant, funny presence and lights things up whenever he appears. He is charismatic, delivers a nuanced performance, and I expect to see much more of him.

Paul Rudd does a very nice job as Charlie’s teacher, Mr. Anderson. As did Robin Williams in Dead Poets Society, he does a purely dramatic turn, keeping the humor, which he is very adept at, at bay.

Other performances, in particular by the darkly striking Nina Dobrev as Candace, Charlie’s older sister, by Mae Whitman as Mary Elizabeth, the other girl, and by Joan Cusack as the caring and insightful Dr. Burton, are also very well delivered.

All the performances in the film are generally very good and that points to an excellent director. The script here, adapted by that director, Stephen Chbosky, from his own novel, is extremely good, making for a truly winning result.

– BADMan