Unexpected Delight
Added 11/5/2009
Flipping through the channels, I stopped at "Charlie Bartlett," just as it was beginning. Points for the unconscious on this one. I expected to stop watching after a few minutes, anticipating a rather anemic high school story. However, I was immediately drawn into the film by the subtlety of the performances and how realistic and affecting they were. The story was at once familiar - the self consciousness of adolescence (which doesn't just end with high school); the bully; do we really know anyone else - and excitingly new and satiric. The strength of the screenplay is perhaps best attributed to never knowing what was going to happen next. The characters become cherished friends whom you want to succeed. A thoroughly enjoyable film which keeps you thinking about it after it is over.
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renaissanceguy
Added 10/11/2009
great performance by the two leads, however HOPE DAVIS outshined everyone in her portrayal of a loving yet slightly out of touch, and always offbeat mom. the score is awesome and the soundtrack renewed my interest in many great songs. look for YUSEF ISLAM (CAT STEVENS) if you like the piano scenes.
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Great coming-of-age movie
Added 9/3/2009
Great movie for teens and adults. The youger generations can relate to the story in present time, and us parents can see things from their point of view. A lot of comedy along with a serious message. Highly recommended!
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Enjoyable with some major flaws
Added 7/11/2009
"Charlie Bartlett" can't seem to decide if it's a teen movie with some higher aspirations or a satire a la "Rushmore" or "Election" as set in a teen movie context. It certainly has many of the cliches of a teen movie - a high school populated exclusively by misfit ogres or beautiful party animals, a students vs. authority subplot and, in by far its worst scene, a god-awful dance montage - and these make for enjoyability as well as irritability.
There's certainly no problem with the acting. Anton Yelchin plays the naive but charismatic Charlie with pleasing gusto, and most of the other students fill in their roles nicely. Among the adults, Hope Davis does well as Charlie's easily-manipulated and (involuntarily) idle rich mother. And, as usual, Robert Downey Jr. steals every scene he's in as the sometimes funny, mostly very sad principal, driven to alcoholism by a job he needs but doesn't want and seeing his daughter become increasingly more distant.
The film's flaw, and it's a big one, is that it's too easy. In plot terms we can forgive the improbable rise of Charlie in his new public school. His common-sense advice as well as his provision of all varieties of over-the-counter drugs, while fancifully presented, is easy to imagine working on so unworldly a group as suburban high schoolers. The movie nearly veers in a direction to expose the ultimate shallowness of this approach, particularly in the encounters between Yelchin and Downey, but the movie ends on such a neat note that I can't help but suspect that the film's creators have fallen for it themselves.
It's still worth a look. High school movies will be with us forever, and you can do a lot worse than "Charlie Bartlett."
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An unexpected hero in a new century
Added 6/22/2009
"Charlie Bartlett" is a film that takes your average teenage rebellion movie and spurs it on to something fierce. It has all the key points of its time: A young boy desperate for attention garners it by creating mass chaos in a school already on the edge.
Here's where the difference comes in: Take out the beach party kids, the attempts at mass domination, and a dead parent. Insert: An awkward and lonely rich child genuinely hoping for the approval and affection of his peers, discovered attempts at piecing a singular place back together that had become severely fractured, and one father in jail for tax fraud. These are just the outward pieces of "Charlie Bartlett."
This is a story easily overlooked as it's wrought with standard teen angst; its clichéd and fairly predictable with a side of the typical division you would see between the clicks in any high school based movie. However, what this film possesses that most don't is the ability to prove to you that even in ones darkest moments when things seem worst, one light, one ray of hope can begin to break cracks in a front put on by desperation and help bring back the majority of the things that have been lost.
If added in is that fact that the main character is played by Anton Yelchin, a boy that has shown his acting chops in both drama and comedy, the latter leaving us rolling on the floor; our Anti-Hero is played by Robert Downey Jr. who is known for his ability to throw himself so heavily into any part that it might consume him and leave the viewer clueless as to who is really there; and the female lead is played by the adorably hilarious Kat Dennings, an actress one can't help but smile at as she seems to exude an amazing amount of light and pure joy regardless of what part she's playing; you have a movie that will keep your attention, leave you with an intense desire to thank your closest teachers, and send you clawing to join your nearest SHAC.
High School is a nightmare. Don't be fooled by the tagline. Popularity isn't just a state of mind. But, maybe take a look at genuine popularity with fresh eyes. Is the popular kid the quarterback of the football team or the school bully, or is the popular kid the one trying to make it better?
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Unexpected Delight
Added 11/5/2009
Flipping through the channels, I stopped at "Charlie Bartlett," just as it was beginning. Points for the unconscious on this one. I expected to stop watching after a few minutes, anticipating a rather anemic high school story. However, I was immediately drawn into the film by the subtlety of the performances and how realistic and affecting they were. The story was at once familiar - the self consciousness of adolescence (which doesn't just end with high school); the bully; do we really know anyone else - and excitingly new and satiric. The strength of the screenplay is perhaps best attributed to never knowing what was going to happen next. The characters become cherished friends whom you want to succeed. A thoroughly enjoyable film which keeps you thinking about it after it is over.
0 out of 0 people found this helpful.
|
renaissanceguy
Added 10/11/2009
great performance by the two leads, however HOPE DAVIS outshined everyone in her portrayal of a loving yet slightly out of touch, and always offbeat mom. the score is awesome and the soundtrack renewed my interest in many great songs. look for YUSEF ISLAM (CAT STEVENS) if you like the piano scenes.
0 out of 0 people found this helpful.
|
Great coming-of-age movie
Added 9/3/2009
Great movie for teens and adults. The youger generations can relate to the story in present time, and us parents can see things from their point of view. A lot of comedy along with a serious message. Highly recommended!
0 out of 0 people found this helpful.
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