Perks of Being a Wallflower, The (2012) [Blu-ray]
Drama | Romance

The Perks of Being a Wallflower is based on the wildly popular novel by Stephen Chbosky about a freshman named Charlie (Logan Lerman) who is always watching from the sidelines until a pair of charismatic seniors takes him under their wing. Beautiful, free-spirited Sam (Emma Watson) and her fearless stepbrother Patrick (Ezra Miller) shepherd Charlie through new friendships, first love, burgeoning sexuality, bacchanalian parties, midnight screenings of The Rocky Horror Picture Show and the quest for the perfect song.

Storyline: Based on the novel written by Stephen Chbosky, this is about 15-year-old Charlie (Logan Lerman), an endearing and naive outsider, coping with first love (Emma Watson), the suicide of his best friend, and his own mental illness while struggling to find a group of people with whom he belongs. The introvert freshman is taken under the wings of two seniors, Sam and Patrick, who welcome him to the real world. Written by Anonymous

Reviewer's Note: Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman on February 1, 2013 -- It's probably unfair to compare The Perks of Being a Wallflower to Donnie Darko in any way, shape or form. Wallflower doesn't feature any science fiction or fantasy elements, no alternate reality, no real (onscreen) death and destruction (save for one fleeting image) and most importantly no giant menacing bunny. Still, for reasons which may be more subliminal than rational, I couldn't help but think of Jake Gyllenhaal's Donnie and his trials in trying to navigate the wild and wooly world of high school as I watched Logan Lerman's Charlie undergoing a similar set of tribulations. Perhaps the comparison is at least a little apt since both Donnie and Charlie suffer from certain emotional disturbances, and in both films the boys are on psychotropic drugs that may or may not be ameliorating or exacerbating their inner torment. The Perks of Being a Wallflower is ostensibly the more "realistic" film, but some may feel that its overly sanguine look at a misfit teen finding his own niche in high school society is at least as much a work of fantasy as anything that happens in Donnie Darko. Based on the well received 1999 novel (brought out by MTV Books) by Stephen Chbosky (who adapted and directed this film version), The Perks of Being a Wallflower is probably going to speak most clearly to those who have relatively recently completed their own circuit through the obstacle course of high school. Older viewers may find it overly contrived, too precious for its own good, and potentially hobbled by a wobbly transition from its source as a so- called epistolary novel. The film may ultimately be best remembered for some nicely nuanced performances, including Emma Watson in a role seemingly designed to help erase any lingering image of Hermione Granger that has been firmly imprinted for years in filmgoers' minds.

What is that noise? Younger viewers might be forgiven for not immediately recognizing that "tippy- tappy" sound the occurs early in The Perks of Being a Wallflower, but it's the now nostalgic sound of typewriter keys hitting the platen. The fact that Wallflower's central character Charlie wants to be a writer and spends quite a bit of time writing to his unseen "friend" is important to the film, but also one of the central reasons this adaptation has not ported over to this medium wholly successfully. Chbosky's novel was made up of those very letters, offering an immediate and visceral window into Charlie's roiling internal emotional life. Here in the film version, we're obviously spectatiors, seeing the story from the outside, and despite Chbosky porting over sections of the letters in the form of narration by Charlie, there's still a distance that was perhaps inevitable, but which works to the film's detriment.

There's a genre of anime appropriately called "slice of life" in which not a lot of earth shattering events happen, but instead a series of more mundane day to day occurrences make up the bulk of the plot, often in fact dealing with high school students. And despite a couple of more intense interchanges that dot the landscape of The Perks of Being a Wallflower, calling this film a live action "slice of life" outing might be deemed entirely accurate. Charlie quickly learns to navigate high school in his own introverted way, rather quickly making friends with outcasts Patrick (Ezra Miller) and Patrick's step sister Sam (Emma Watson). Neither of these siblings has quite the emotional baggage that Charlie evidently does (the film is strangely discursive at times about Charlie's actual "issues"), but the three band together and a rather profound bond is forged.

The Perks of Being a Wallflower anecdotally moves through several issues, including homosexuality (Patrick is gay and Charlie catches him making out with a closeted football player), heterosexuality (Charlie has a somewhat unrequited crush on Sam which provides an ongoing plot element), drugs (Charlie gets unwittingly stoned at a party after eating an Alice B. Toklas brownie), and family dysfunction (as Chbosky rather smartly mentions in his commentary, Charlie is a ghost walking through his own house, until the film's late revelation about some disturbing family history). As such, the film is fitfully effective, as in a scene where Charlie sees his elder sister getting smacked by her boyfriend, or, much later in the film, a scene where Patrick is getting the crap kicked out of him and Charlie explodes with his own brand of "fists of fury".

But just as often The Perks of Being a Wallflower seems little more than skin deep, albeit a shallowness that is marked by obvious good intentions. The film is simply too sanguine for its own good, a quality that seems especially unfounded given some of the disturbing content that is part and parcel of Charlie's history. Chbosky is obviously attempting to craft a generally optimistic tale, though, one which shows even misfits can fit in with other misfits, and so in that regard at least part of this quality is understandable.

While the film never really gels as a cohesive entertainment, there's a lot to enjoy just in terms of performances. Logan Lerman finds just the right combination of vulnerability and steeliness as Charlie, and Emma Watson is wonderful as the free spirited Sam. The supporting work of everyone from Ezra Miller to Paul Rudd as Charlie's English teacher and writing mentor are also quite effective. But The Perks of Being a Wallflower ends up being a case of the parts being greater than the whole.

[CSW] -4.7- This isn't just a coming-of-age story about a shy, young, misfit freshman named Charlie. The misfit has far deeper meaning as the story slowly and very delicately shows in the widely spaced series of flashbacks. If you are paying attention then you will eventually get the feeling of "Whoa" I didn't just watch a movie, I really experienced something. This is a well-done coming-of-age drama that's takes a pretty serious look at the teenage depression which can accompany the period, but is especially true for some who have truly traumatic events in their very early life that linger in their subconscious. It is a beautiful treatment of a touchy subject and is based on a novel which is a modern-day "Catcher in the Rye." Whatever you do don't miss it.
[V3.5-A4.0] MPEG-4 AVC - No D-Box.

º º