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Charlie Bartlett
By Joey Magidson
Charlie hits the right
chords...
If there’s one major
criticism to be found in Charlie Bartlett, it lies in the drastic tonal
shifts that the film takes. At times it plays like a John Hughes movie
(The Breakfast Club mostly), at times it has a Risky Business vibe to
it, at times it’s an angry high school film (for some reason, even
though it doesn’t feature pirate radio in it, I kept thinking back to
Pump Up The Volume), and at other times it wants to be something fresh
and original. The end result is something that feels like a bit less
than the sum of its parts, but still a very entertaining film
nonetheless.
Charlie Bartlett is about
the aforementioned character, and his quest for popularity at the public
high school he has been forced to go by his mom (played by Hope Davis)
to after getting kicked out of everywhere else. Charlie is a
troublemaker, but a nice guy. He quickly gets the school wired and
begins running a prescription drug/therapy ring, all the while just
trying to be liked. He catches the eye of the principal’s daughter
(played by Kat Dennings from The 40 Year Old Virgin) and the ire of the
principal. From there on, it’s a quest to make everything go right in
Charlie’s life, with mixed results.
What the film has working
in its favor is two incredibly good performances. Anton Yelchin gives a
charismatic performance as the title character. He gives us a hero (or
antihero to some) that you want to root for and see succeed. He makes
Charlie seem real and relatable, even while some mildly outrageous
things are going on. Matching him beat for beat, and frequently
stealing the stage from him though, is Robert Downey Jr’s school
principal character. He is three dimensional where in other movies he’d
either be a sad sack or a cartoonish villain. Probably the most serious
character in the film, he still gets a few good laughs, and probably is
the most fleshed out character of the bunch, perhaps aside from
Charlie.
Despite the inconsistent
tone of the movie, it grows on the viewer and by the time that the end
credits role, it’s hard not to like Mr. Bartlett or be rooting him on.
Likewise for Downey’s character. The climax of the film seems a little
hard to stomach (especially when a gun makes an appearance) but the two
actors make the scene work as well as it could and save it from becoming
farcical and completely absurd. Charlie Bartlett may not win any Oscars
anytime soon, but it is a solid film and brings about the memory of when
(with the exception of something like Superbad) teen films were made for
teens and adults alike.
***/****
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