DIARY OF A WIMPY KID

Perhaps a better title for this kid comedy, aimed squarely at ten-year-old boys, would be Diary of an Irritating Kid. Or Diary of a Self-Absorbed Kid. Because, while he’s certainly picked on and diminutive in stature, there’s not a whole lot about the lead character that is actually “wimpy.”

Based on Jeff Kinney’s popular illustrated-book series, and packed with lots of jokes about pee and snot and farts, the film trains its lens on Greg Heffley (Zachary Gordon), a pint-sized sixth grader with one all-consuming goal: to be featured prominently (and favorably) in his middle-school yearbook. His best friend is the portly Rowley (Robert Capron), who’s all sunshine and optimism and endearing childishness while Greg is more focused on being perceived as cool and mature. Yes, at age eleven.

As the duo navigates through the perils of academia – including the requisite gym-class terror, schoolyard-bullying nightmare and drama-club mess – we’re introduced to assorted periphery characters, including Greg’s sneering older brother (Devon Bostick, who’s great), preternaturally adult classmate Angie (Chloë Grace Moretz), bespectacled preteen weirdo Fregley (Grayson Russell) and Greg’s cipher-like parents (Steve Zahn and Rachael Harris, the only identifiable adult actors in the cast... and yet, completely wasted).

Vignettes chronicling Greg’s month-by-month efforts to find some new way of being noticed by his peers, and subsequently being pummeled (physically or emotionally) as a result, unspool one after another. Unfortunately, that gives Diary’s narrative something of a patchwork feel – there’s no emotional flow or arc, and the proceedings begin to take on an “and then this happened, and then this happened, and then this happened” structure. Given the typical attention span of kids these days, perhaps that’ll work for younger viewers, but it made the story feel repetitive and tedious to this adult.

While Gordon is a solid young actor, there’s something about him that smacks of showbiz, which undermines the character a bit and makes it hard to sympathize with Greg’s plight. Nevermind that said plight turns Greg into an annoying attention hog rather than a good kid trying to fit in. Capron, on the other hand, seems goofy and natural and relaxed – it doesn’t feel like he’s Delivering A Performance. Speaking of... no one is as unbelievable as Angie, a (presumably) 12-year-old girl who speaks and dresses and behaves as though she’s a bored, so-over-it 24-year-old hipster. I’m not sure what the filmmakers intended as far as her character was concerned, but Moretz came off as a smug know-it-all and far too outrageously sophisticated for her years. Sorry, I didn’t buy it.

The underlying message of Diary is that truly being yourself begets acceptance and friendship, but it seems like it’s a lesson not fully learned or embraced by the kid at its core. Greg spends much of the movie on a such a myopic, borderline-selfish quest that his eventual understanding of that message feels decidedly tacked-on for good measure at the last moment, as opposed to something he discovers organically as he goes.

And, I get it: this movie isn’t meant to be an inspirational touchstone for young boys desperate to belong. It’s a fun, silly comedy intended to make them laugh out loud, and I have no doubt it’ll do just that. It’s just too bad that the geeky kids in it actually wind up being the butt of more jokes than they are the genuine victors in their own sixth-grade struggles.