Charlie Bartlett

Just can't wait to go back to school? Looking forward to sinking your teeth into some expository essays and nine months of adolescent angst? If you are nodding your head with enthusiasm, you deserve a snow cone to the face, I'm sorry. If you are cringing at each mental image of a bright new school year, you are not alone. The conflicted teens of indie film Charlie Bartlett feel your pain, and after watching this movie you will be praying a transfer like Charlie will be waiting for you in your school hallways, ready to lift your spirits and raise some teenage hell.

The film follows a privileged young man named Charlie Bartlett who, after being expelled from countless private prep schools, lands himself in the much rougher and more misunderstood public school environment where wealth makes one a target of bullies and ridicule. After adjusting to a new social hierarchy, Charlie learns to use his charm and quick wit to ward off potential predators by providing a listening ear as well as advice to all the tormented teens. As Charlie's following grows, he learns to utilize the psychiatric resources of his much broken up family to acquire prescription treatments for his patients. Of course between handing out prescription drugs in a boys bathroom stall and finding romance with the artsy daughter of quick-tempered Principle Gardner, the road gets a bit messy. However, along the way our quirky hero learns how to shift through the BS of high school in order to find the meaningful experiences and relationships that will help piece together his own puzzle.

As clich as it sounds, this movie really did have a unique spin on the teenage atmosphere. Many of the problems kids deal with are very realistic and it was refreshing to see some authentic looking American teenagers in the film, because let's face it, we just can't possibly all look like the Plastics. Although Mean Girls was pretty entertainingly stereotypical of the high school scene, I enjoyed director Jon Poll's depiction of anguished high school kids wandering though the hallways in gray areas of their youth that restricted any stereotypes because the teens really only had one thing in common: they were all in search of guidance in the confusing world of adolescence.

Charlie's character, played by Anton Yelchin (A young rising star who had a breakout role as the kidnapped victim in Alpha Dog, a must-see!), was such a riot and perfectly captured the idea that going against the grain is so much more fun. I loved watching him imitate the various psychological ailments of his classmates in order to receive the correct medication from his doctors. I also liked that he was just as big of a mess as his patients and as you watch him constantly care for his family and peers, you hope someone is trying to help him as well. However, although I appreciated seeing the tormented side of Charlie, I had hoped more of his family issues would be resolved by the end of the movie. After waiting the length of the film to discover the mystery behind Charlie's absentee father, I felt a bit left hanging when they did not even give the characters a face-to face.

On another not so praiseful note, I was not especially happy with Robert Downey Jr.'s role of the weary and unmotivated Principal Gardner because some of his scenes dealing with the disciplinary aspect of the teenage world became as monotonous and drained as his character. I especially did not like his much too quick reversal to the alcohol abused father of Charlie's romantic interest, and the climactic scene when Charlie interrupts one of his drunken rages where he actually bears arms seemed a bit over dramatic and out of context.

Although much of the drug proportions of the film were comical, such as Charlie's hilarious experiment with Ritalin, there was an intense part of the movie when one young customer OD's on some of Charlie's prescriptions. I do not want to ruin this significant point of the film, but I respected that the whole idea of passing out hard drugs to teens with real problems was not taken entirely as one huge joke. I hope teens spend time to see this unique take on high school life and I hope as a generation we can appreciate the courage and creativity of Charlie Bartlett that dug deep into the minds of realistic teenagers, which we all know can be pretty complicated and confusing, but of course extremely entertaining as well.

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