“Welcome to the island of misfit toys,” says Sam (Emma Watson) to Charlie (Logan Lerman), a smart, shy and troubled freshman struggling to fit in and make some new friends and who has just been taken under the wings of two seniors – Sam and her half-brother, Patrick (Ezra Miller) – in the coming-of-age-film, The Perks of Being a Wallflower.
It’s been a tough summer for Charlie who has still not fully recovered from a recent tragedy in his life. Desperate to try to turn things around and make his first year in high school a good one, Charlie makes every effort to connect with students but keeps finding rejection and insults at every turn. And then one night at a high school football game his fortune changes. Charlie meets Patrick and Sam who quickly take a liking to him and begin inviting him to tag along with them to events and parties.
It’s at a party while Charlie is experiencing the side effects of enhanced brownies that he reveals to Sam the details of the tragedy from the previous summer. Realizing Charlie has no friends, Sam and Patrick decide to welcome him into their circle of friends and look out for him.
Soon Patrick and Sam are teaching Charlie about music, having fun, first dates, and surviving high school while Charlie begins to fall head-over-heels for Sam. For the first time in a long time, he actually starts to enjoy life.
Charming, sweet and sentimental, The Perks of Being a Wallflower is one of the best coming-of-age films to hit the big screen in years. It has a strong cast with two stand-out performances in particular by Emma Watson and Ezra Miller. Emma Watson delivers a wonderful performance as Sam, the good-hearted, slightly damaged new best friend and love interest to Charlie. She shows beautifully the empathy her character feels when she discovers Charlie is friendless, and subtly conveys her growing feelings of attraction to Charlie as she spends more and more time with him. The Christmas party scene where Charlie walks out in his new Sinatra-like suit (a gift from Patrick) and Sam’s eyes light up as she first starts to fall for him and doesn’t even realize it is exquisite. It’s a truly memorable performance by an actress who is one of the best of her generation.
Ezra Miller is perfectly cast as Patrick, the extrovert and leader of the misfit group who seems to be happy with who he is. He’s getting ready to graduate after this year but has his own deep dark secrets and demons to deal with. It’s a film-stealing performance that is responsible for most of the much-needed humor in the film.
Logan Lerman delivers a strong performance as Charlie, the shy, smart and awkward young man who’s desperate to make friends and run away from the tragedies of his past. It may be difficult, however, for the audience to accept Lerman, who is 20 portraying a 15-year-old. But he does have real chemistry with Watson and it’s their scenes together in the film that raise it to another level. The scene in Sam’s bedroom after the Christmas party where she learns Charlie has never kissed a girl and she becomes determined to be his first kiss – even though she’s interested in another boy – is tender, true, and perfect.
The Perks of Being a Wallflower is extremely well-written, with crisp and realistic dialogue. It’s also almost perfectly paced. It captures the year 1991 flawlessly with the correct clothes, cars, and songs, even down to the book covers that existed back then of timeless classics like To Kill A Mockingbird and Catcher in the Rye. Perks is a very impressive accomplishment for first-time writer and director Stephen Chbosky (author of the book the movie’s based on).
Perhaps the only drawback is near the end of the film when it becomes very dark and disturbing, revealing Charlie’s second tragic secret. The movie’s tone and Logan’s performance seem a bit heavy-handed, but the filmmaker is able to steer the film back on course for the finale.
Funny, sad, and touching, The Perks of Being a Wallflower is a film that captures the love, pain, excitement, confusion, and friendship of the teenage years when everything seems both possible and impossible. It’s one of the best pictures of the year.
GRADE B+
