I'm happy if the movie entertains me for a couple of hours. I'm REAL happy if I begin to really care about the characters AND think about the movie after I have seen it.
"The Perks of Being a Wallflower" is one such movie.
I don't remember seeing much hoopla on this movie. Not a lot of well-known actors in it, well, except for Emma Watson, a.k.a. "Hermione Granger" from the Harry Potter movies. The actor on the left, Ezra Miller, also starred in "There's Something About Kevin", a dark and terrifying movie about violence at a high school. I was glad to see him play a much better character.
The main character is the young man on the right, "Charlie", played by Logan Lerman. There is something about this kid that makes him endearing from the opening scene. It's his first day of high school freshmen year. Yuk. Remember that? And he has no friends. Double yuk. Your heart just breaks as you watch him struggle through the first few weeks of school, enduring the random meanness of the other students, his wanting to fit in, ANYWHERE, to be accepted by ANYONE. I can't quite believe that no one want to be his friend because he seems like such a likable kid. His English teacher, played by Paul Rudd, strikes up a friendship with him, one that leads you to believe will shape Charlie into an even finer young man and hopefully a writer.
A couple of senior students finally befriend Charlie, who aren't part of the "in" crowd, but are comfortable in their own skin and having their own group of friends. The movie continues on with the escapades of this group, things a normal high schooler would get involved in, and some not, like the involvement with the local theater and the Rocky Horror Picture Show.
But Charlie has some dark secrets that eventually come out. Some are shocking. The seniors move on to college and Charlie has to cope without them.
This movie is based on a Young Adult novel by the same name. The author, Stephen Chobsky, wrote the screenplay and directed the movie.
Watch a short clip on the movie.
