The Perks of Being a Wallflower ☆☆☆☆½

He wrote the book. He wrote the screenplay. He even directed the movie.

Stephen Chbosky is a talented guy.

First thing I'd like to say about this is that it is extraordinarily hard to review because the author did all the important stuff, he would even have had a say in the casting. So I cannot make comparisons to the book (which of course I reviewed on my other blog) because any differences were totally done to make it translatable to screen which the director handled amazingly...this is gonna be a gushing review.

SO the plot. We focus on Charlie, played by Logan Lerman (Percy Jackson, 3:10 to Yuma), a young man who has had a difficult time in life and is somewhere on the autistic scale. This is reflected in his behaviour and extreme social awkwardness. We meet him on his first day of high school and the film charts his life throughout that first year, where he makes friends and discovers hidden talents, screws things up in spectacular fashion, but then makes his way to recovering what has been lost.

The people in Charlie's life include his mother and father, Dylan McDermott (American Horror Story) and Kate Walsh (Private Practice), whose small amount of screen time was just brilliant. I didn't even recognise Kate Walsh at first.

There is also Candace, Charlie's sister, played by The Vampire Diarie's Nina Dobrev who also impressed me. Mostly I think because I have become incredibly annoyed by TVD and her character, so it was good to see her playing a human in a human world. Her boyfriend, Ponytail Derek, was a lot different to how I had imagined him in the book, mostly because I don't remember the ponytail...however this is Chbosky's show
so it must have been what he intended, so I went with it.

Charlie has an older brother who pops up at Christmas, time restrictions meant leaving out the deeper worries and wishes of Charlie to be in more contact with his big brother, but I was quite touched by their scenes together.

Charlie's first friend, his teacher Mr Anderson, was almost exactly as I imagined him from the book - I just didn't realise I had been imagining Paul Rudd. Its good to see him in a serious role for once, where he gets to play the mentor and person pivotal to Charlie 'participating'.

Now to the people you've seen in all the trailers, Miss Emma Watson as Sam, Ezra Miller (We Need to Talk About Kevin) as Patrick and of course Logan Lerman as Charlie. All three were perfect. Perfect. I know this only my humble opinion but genuinely, the way that Sam was written in this film meant that any expectation I had from the book was broken down and rebuilt in the form of Emma Watson. I'd love it if any North Americans out there could tell me if her accent was really bad, but to me it sounded fine. Akin to Dakota Fanning's British accent I think Watson was doing the generic American twang that to a local would sound a bit odd, but it worked for me.

Ezra Miller was Fab-U-LOUS! His Patrick was just, well read the book you'll understand it was just so very Patrick. And he and Watson worked well together and completely pulled off their step-sibling relationship. There is all sorts of seriousness happening with Patrick, his sexuality, relationships and some violence. And it was all brought to the screen magnificently.

The most important character though is of course Charlie and I'll admit I had reservations when seeing Lerman on the trailer. But, the kid can ACT. He was funny without meaning to be, engaging, heartbreaking, and ultimately utterly believable as Charlie, this kid I fell in love with only a couple of months ago. So if you've seen, say, The Three Musketeers, please don't judge Lerman on that, judge him on this film.

What I was concerned about was that I wouldn't react the same way watching the film as I had whilst reading the book. But I did. I was forcing myself to watch the screen when a truly embarrassing to the core and heartbreaking at the same time moment happened, the same as I had forced myself to read on. I was in pieces in an important 10 minute period toward the end of the film, and I think the amount of tears was equal to those that flooded my kitchen table when reading the same scenes.

If all authors had the talent that Chbosky has, then maybe I wouldn't get so mad at book adaptations. Because how can you argue with something that has clearly had the same level of attention and passion put in to it as the original source? Yes there are some minor changes but these are not deal breakers to the enjoyment of the film.

I hope those who have seen the film are encouraged to go on and read the book, because the story achieves so much more in terms of really getting to know the characters. However because of the superior quality of this film and the depth it manages to reach, I won't be too unhappy if you only spend an hour and a half with this amazing boy and his world.