Review 208: The Perks of Being a Wallflower

The Perks of Being a Wallflower is a deeply affecting coming-of-age film and one of the best in its genre to come out in recent years.

Based on the epistolary novel, The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky (also writer and director), the film follows 15-year-old Charlie (Logan Lerman), an endearing and naive outsider, coping with first love Sam (Emma Watson), the suicide of his best friend, and his own mental illness while struggling to find a group of people with whom he belongs. The introvert freshman is taken under the wings of two seniors, Sam and Patrick (Ezra Miller), who welcome him to the real world.

The plot is extremly touching and heartfelt, it got to be one of the most bittersweet and well written adaptations ever, it explores topics like introversion and extraversion, abuse, and the awkward times of adolescence with it's moral being "We accept the love we think we deserve" . It can be hard going through those types of years and at times to perhaps all the time we can feel like a missfit and that is why I think this is a film I think teenagers can really relate to. It's a story about missfits and how they cope with school life. We grow to care about our characters and we synpathise with them because we  know what it's like to be in their positions and we it makes us reflect on our own coming-of-age years.
And we've got some great character moments e.g. in the scene were Charlie, Sam and Patrick drive through a tunnel, Sam stands up in the back of the pickup truck while listening to Heroes by David Bowie, Charlie thinks about Sam this is the first indication of Charlie being attracted to her. Another one of these is when Sam then tells Charlie that she wants his first kiss to be from someone who loves him. She leans in and kisses Charlie that shows the audience that she loves him. Also when Charlie attends a Sadie Hawkins Dance with Mary Elizabeth (Mae Whitman) one of Sam and Patrick's friend he starts a relationship with her but doesn't feel comfortable with it but doesn't tell her because he doesn't want to hurt he feelings, that's perfectly normal and human for a teenager, we go out with the wrong people but we don't have the courage to say it out loud as we don't want to hurt that persons feelings and at the same time we feel stuck in one place: everyone makes mistakes.

Stephen Chbosky direction is sensitive, the soundtrack is stupendous, the cinematography is beautiful, the production design (recreating the 1990's) is brilliant, the costume design is great, the make up is rich, the scenery is gorgeous to look at and the ending was superb.

The film is warmly acted, Logan Lerman, Emma Watson and Ezra Miller are

, Mae Whitman is great as Mary Elizabeth, Paul Rudd is fabulous Mr. Anderson, Charlie's English teacher, Kate Walsh and 
Dylan McDermott are sensite and lovely as Charlies mum and dad, Nina Dobrev is wonderful as 
Candace, Charlie's sister and Joan Cusack is fab in her small role.

The Perks of Being a Wallflower is a heartfelt and sincere adaptation that I'd highly recomend to anyone who in a difficult position as I am.

Comment if you have any ideas or suggestions for this review. A very personal 5/5.

The Anonymous Critic