| CHARLIE BARTLETT |
 2008 - USADirector: Jon Poll
- Reviewed by Vickie
“Okay, so we’re making a high-school comedy sort of like Ferris Bueller’s Day Off for a new generation.” “Fantastic. I love it. Only... can we add a little gravitas to the whole thing?” “Sure. We’ll make it a little darker. Edgier. We’ll make suicide and mental illness a recurring theme.” “Great. Dark works. In fact, can you make it more serious?” “Okay. We can do serious. We have Robert Downey Jr., after all, and he can do funny just as well as he can do tragic.” “Very nice. But you’ll still keep it light, right? Silly? Serious but silly? Like American Pie meets, I dunno, Blow?” And on and on. Unfortunately for the film and its filmmakers, Charlie Bartlett tries to be all things to all people—comedy, drama, morality tale, coming-of-age flick, indie-cred feature—that it winds up flopping all over the screen in a jumble of genres. And I’m still not sure what, exactly, the movie was supposed to be. Anton Yelchin, in a winning performance despite the all-over-the-map screenplay, stars as the titular teen hero, who’s just been expelled from his private school for manufacturing phony driver’s licenses for his peers and who’s freshly enrolled in the world’s most clichéd public high school. (Seriously, if I have to see one more movie insert the requisite scene where the audience is shown all the different cliques on a given campus, I’m going to scream. “The goths! The jocks! The stoners! The geeks! The cheerleaders!” That’s just lazy, lazy screenwriting.) Picked on at first—he wears a crested blazer to school and happily rides the short bus with extras in their 20s trying, and failing, to pass as mentally challenged teenagers—Charlie eventually finds his groove when he decides to start peddling Ritalin and other prescription meds to his classmates. He gets himself a thuggish “business partner” named Murph (Tyler Hilton), a hot girlfriend (Kat Dennings)—who also happens to be the daughter of the school principal (Robert Downey Jr.), and a legion of adoring fair-weather friends. Despite what seems to be an effort to turn Charlie into a smart, savvy, young hero, the filmmakers overlook the fact that he’s selling drugs to teenagers and making a killing from his illegal business. Sure, they try to temper that problematic fact by having Charlie simultaneously offer counseling sessions in the boys’ bathroom (because he really cares and wants to help) but, at its core, this movie is about a kid getting other kids hooked on prescription meds. The only person who seems aware of what that actually means is Downey’s character, but his protestations are presented as alarmist and kind of silly. About 2/3 of the way through, the film does take a serious turn when the repercussions of non-medically monitored drug-taking come to light, but by then it’s a bit late for lesson-learning. The story veers back and forth between comedy and drama from scene to scene, which gives it a bi-polar feel that, I suppose, mirrors the problems faced by some of its characters. But instead of covering all its bases, the film winds up seeming directionless and meandering—similarly, Charlie (who’s no Ferris, btw), comes off as alternately lovable and stupid. Despite Yelchin showing real star potential, and supporting players like Downey and Hope Davis (as Charlie’s boozy but fun mother), the performances aren’t enough to save the proceedings from languishing in indecisiveland. |
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As I watched this movie, I started to imagine what story meetings must
have been like during production.
