Its really unfortunate that this movie only had limited release. I had to to drive almost an hour to the closest theater that was playing it. I was extremely excited to watch this movie and had been waiting for its release all summer. Although there could have been some little changes that would have made this movie a lot better, I wasn’t to disappointed on the way it turned out.
If you are familiar with this story you know that is based on the critically acclaimed book of the same name written by Stephen Chbosky. Now this book I have heard about for a long long time but never read. I heard so many good things about it, even that it has actually saved peoples lives. Although the story is directed towards teens and the painful journey through high school, I read it before the movie came out as a 30 year old women and all though I am an adult I still related to the anguish that poor Charlie the main character in the book was going through. I had so many flash backs as a teen reading this book, especially being a teen in the 90’s. This is an amazing book.
The book is nothing but letters written by freshman in high school Charlie. Who he is writing to, no one knows. He never gives the name as to whom he is writing to and also states that Charlie isn't even his real name. Charlie is an extremely shy, emotionally damaged boy. His “favorite person” Aunt Helen died in a car accident when he was very little when she went out to buy his birthday gift plaguing Charlie with guilt for her death. He had only one friend and he killed himself shortly before the start of high school , which caused Charlie to have to enter high school alone. Not to mention his friend didn’t even leave a note as to why he committed suicide, so Charlie struggled for a reason why his friend would do such a thing. All this weighs down hard on Charlies mental state.
When he finally friends a couple older teens Sam and her charismatic gay stepbrother Patrick. This small group of misfits except Charlie for who he is, weird quirks and all. He surrounds his whole life around them. But friends and the loss of loved ones isn't the only cause of Charlie’s mental state. After his first sexual encounter with Sam, he has a flashback of something terrible that it seems his mind made it a point to forget. I don’t want to give spoilers because it actually is a pretty big shocker.
Anyways lets talk about the movie. One reason I was extremely excited to watch this movie is because the writer of the book Stephen Chbosky is also the director of the movie. He has stated in interviews that several people have come to him asking for the rights to make this movie and he has refused every time unless they agreed to let him direct…which finally they did. Now after all that you would expect the film to be almost perfect….but it wasn’t. Now I know there is always big differences when you make a film based off a book, but being the actually writer of the book, there were a lot of things missing that actually played HUGE parts in the book that I was so surprised that he left out. For one as soon as you start to read the book you know there is something wrong with Charlie. You know he has pretty bad emotional problems, he was constantly breaking down in tears in the book for anything. But when I watched the film, I think I saw him cry once maybe twice and Charlie out of all the characters seemed like the most normal character in the entire film. You Don’t even realise that there may be something wrong with him until towards the end. He basically seemed like just a normal awkward teen that is having trouble fitting in. Another thing I would have liked for them to of included is maybe showed more of the impact his best friends suicide had on him because all they do is mention it and that’s it. In the story his Charlie had a lot of confusion as to why his friend would do this. Those are just some examples that should have been included.
Although there were things I would have changed, I did really enjoy the film. Being that it was based in the 90’s and the fact that I was a teen in the 90’s, it was very relateable.The actors they picked I thought were very good choices. Logan Lermer played Charlie very well and that is always how I pictured Charlie to look like. Ezra Miller who I loved in “We Need To Talk About Kevin” played Patrick perfectly..such a likable character and I am so happy with the way Ezra played him. Emma Watson didn’t do to bad as Sam, although I don’t think she played the part as well as someone else probably could, but she did do a great job. Their were some surprise casting such as Nina Dobrev as Charlie's sister and Dylan McDermott as Charlie's father (both I would have liked to see play a bigger part in the film) As far as Stephen Chbosky's directing ability, I think it needs a lot of work. But all in all I was happy with what I saw…would have fixed a couple things but I would definitely watch it again and recommend it to others. Also I cried a lot while reading this book and really expected to be crying through out the entire movie so I was actually happy it wasn’t quite as sad as the book because I don’t mind crying in privacy reading a book but not in a movie theater lol….
The story itself no matter how you see it and no matter how its done …the story itself is still a beautiful story. The story of Charlie is a story of hope. For as painful as a journey this young boy has gone through and the damage it has caused on his mind and emotions, he still manages to see things positively and finds the friends to except him for the way he is and in turn is able to except himself and realize that he is ok and although there will be bad times in life, everything will be ok…he will be ok. Go watch this movie and read the book.
~Jennifer~
Bastard Production Team
