Brief Overview
Charlie Bartlett is not your run of the mill high school junior. Charlie apparently comes from a very affluent background and is a trouble maker. It is evident early on that Charlie’s father has little (or nothing) to do in his life and strives to whatever it takes to become “The guy everyone likes”. It’s how Charlie goes about this method of becoming the most popular kid in school that draws him so much attention – illegal activities. Charlie has apparently been kicked out of almost every private boarding school in the country, and with his neurotic mother that treats him more like an adult than her son, decides to try private school. I really enjoy “underdog films” Films such as Napoleon Dynamite and the Daria series (yeah, I guess I have a pair of ovaries, I actually liked Daria) for example, but the day that Charlie steps onto the bus to go to his first day of public schooling is where the film starts to become a dramatic comedy that tries way too hard and Charlie does little to redeem himself as he fails to address his own issue of being wrought with delusions of grandeur and narcissistic behavioral issues.
Characters, Setting, Story.
I don’t know if this has to do with the writing or the direction, but the list of characters just screams of stereotypical archetypes of any high school. As Charlie steps on the bus, he befriends a slow witted large fellow and proceeds to sit next to him, and then we get a cut to the “insanity” that plagues most of middle America’s public school system. Insanity such as rampant graffiti, skate boarding, underage smoking, and any other issue I have forgot to mention that the media tends of over exaggerate . When I went to high school, (I graduated about 6 six years ago) there was graffiti and garbage strewn about, but nothing close to the magnitude that this film illustrates. This movie’s schools made my high school look like the Ritz.
Charlie is eventually run afoul by the school bully, Murphy. Charlie, of course not being used to how the rest of American teenagers act across the financial divide says the wrong things to Murphy and eventually gets the crap kicked out of him. Charlie later on gets a love interest going with a girl named Susan, whom also happens to be the principal’s daughter that automatically grants her outcast status. When Charlie comes home after his first day of school with a black eye his mother over-reacts and sends him to a psychiatrist. The psychiatrist eventually prescribes Charlie Ritalin just because Charlie say’s he day dreams , which seems to be a stab of hasty diagnosis’s by many American medical professionals when it comes to dispensing legalized meth.
As Charlie takes a couple of doses of ritalin, he somehow gets “high” off this medication and starts doing crazy things, and eventually gets the idea to hire his giant, slow witted friend to bully Murphy (the guy who kicked the crap out of him) into selling his ritalin at a dance. As word gets out that Charlie can get his hands on pharmaceuticals, Charlie gets the idea to play psychiatrist and manages to get kids these drugs via proxy by talking to different doctors to obtain these medications and sell them at an inflated cost. This would sound like an interesting movie, but I guess the execution of the rest of the film is where it falls flat as it seems like it’s something I’ve already seen before in other films and they just happened to mix various genre’s together to appease the largest audience possible, which turn you’re ended up with the end result that pleases no one. The writing and execution sounds a bit familiar to the films protagonist and what you end up getting is a mediocre film. The acting seems forced throughout the film from Charlie’s sadness of not having a father in his life, to being over ecstatic in points of the film. The acting seemed forced across the board and this may have more to do with the director than the actors themselves.
Without giving too much of the movie away, needless to say that what Charlie does (he gets into some other endeavors aside from his drug sales) gets him into trouble and he manages to rally the school to get some much needed change needed at his high school to help his friends.
If this sounds like something you’re interested in, go ahead and watch this film, it’s nothing outstanding and stories of outcasts rising above the B.S. that is high school has been done before and done MUCH better.
Special Features
There isn’t much in the way of special features other than what you would find on your typical DVD. There’s a music video by the band that plays at Charlie’s party is the only thing that stands out from most DVDs.
