Emma Watson’s tasty wallflower

Adapted and directed by the author himself, Stephen Chbosky’s The Perks of Being a Wallflower is an enthusiastic, somewhat rushed, American teenage rite-of-passage story. Although a good premise and a best-selling novel, the film itself is distinctly over-full and does appear to have been put together a little hastily – or not edited well enough to reduce the book to film length. That said, this modern classic tale is generally well acted and well scripted.

Back in the Nineties, young teen Charlie (Logan Lerman – Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief) is a quiet, sensitive, emotional type, and is just starting out at a new high school in Pittsburgh, USA. Here, his stepbrother Patrick (Ezra Miller – We Need to Talk About Kevin) and stepsister Sam (Emma Watson – do you really need telling?) take him under their wing and attempt to guide him through the early twists of adolescence and the first few semesters of high school. As the school year progresses, Charlie finds himself the half-reluctant, half-delighted centre of attention within the friendship group. However, the mystery surrounding both Sam (who is supposedly more hip and music-savvy than her mainstream peers, but fails to recognise Bowie’s Heroes on the radio) and Patrick (bitchy as hell, but appears to be hiding something significant) leaves naïve Charlie confused, upset and emotional. Is this really any better than his old, lonely life?

Still trying to cast off Hermione’s Hogwarts robes, Watson does a good job in a role that is a little complicated. One false move and it could have been horrific, but thankfully Watson’s convincing American accent and quirky acting style proved very effective here. Lerman, too, is solid in his role as the nervous, lonely Charlie – despite being relatively unknown alongside Watson. After his significant success in the role of Kevin in Lynne Ramsay’s We Need to Talk About Kevin, expectations were rising surrounding Miller’s performance in this, his latest venture. Sadly, although he does his best, one could say he is ridiculously miscast as the ‘gay best friend’ – a weak role, poorly scripted and apparently mostly used to bulk the story out.

Throughout the film there is an underlying thread of child abuse, suicide and suffering (we see Charlie in a lab-coated therapists office on a few occasions, seemingly to deal with past demons), supposedly to emphasise the key points of the tale. Unfortunately, the drama fails to support this theme, and the brief moments of excitement are more Eastenders than five-star film. The drama, too, seems like it is only actually dramatic to the teenagers throwing the tantrums.

All things said, it is an enjoyable and steady film, but the idea that ‘less is more’ may have been a good notion to follow here.