My new favorite movie is Charlie Bartlett, a film about a seventeen-year-old kid who is always up to shenanigans that get him kicked out of every private school he’s been enrolled in. His mother gets shrinks to try to figure out what is wrong with him and enrolls Charlie into a public school, where he changes everyone’s lives just by listening to them in the boys restroom. Think Ferris Bueller, only with a bigger message and with a way, way more talented lead actor.
The T-shirt says it all.
It was just delightful to watch Anton Yelchin as the charismatic Bartlett. Like Ferris Bueller, as part of the audience you want to be Bartlett. Or at least, you want to be in Bartlett’s inner circle. Yelchin is quirky, earnest and completely having fun as the pill-prescribing Bartlett, who gets the bright idea (which adults always seem to miss) of actually listening to the kids in his high school and helping them out with their issues. But it doesn’t end there. Charlie Bartlett has his own issues that he needs to sort out–issues that motivated him to help other kids in the first place.
The film is very easy to relate to. Everyone’s been in high school at some point in their life, and everyone knows how that is. My experience was definitely different. In fact, my high school experience was far from excruciating. It was one of the best days of my life. But what is pretty much a staple in high school is how much you start realizing that the adults around you start to become strangers. In my high school experience, your teachers were never really there. They were just getting by, trying to teach you your stuff. It didn’t feel like they cared what happened to you in the future. Your parents seem to not know what to do with you, or they know absolutely what they want to do with you and you have no say about where your life is supposed to go. Ah, such is the drama of teen angst, and Bartlett captures it beautifully with a fun story and a brilliant cast.
Anton Yelchin is not the only standout actor in this film. Robert Downey Jr. plays the high school principal who gets suspicious of Bartlett’s shenanigans and doesn’t exactly know how to handle the situation, let alone his teenage daughter, whom Bartlett happens to fancy. Downey (do I have to say Downey Jr.?) delivers his classic rapid-fire quips and trademark no-nonsense demeanor, and yet you can see his brilliance when he starts to descend into that dark hole where his character writhes in his own personal depression. Downey’s character is a bit of an alcoholic, and since he himself has had experience battling alcoholism in the past, he gives you just the right performance. I love when he says “Never attack a drunk guy with a gun!” That was hilarious.
Hope Davis [The Weather Man] is also one to commend in this film. She plays Charlie’s mother, who is a bit dazed and doped up that she barely knows what to do with her son. Tyler Hilton, who you probably know from One Tree Hill, also delivers a fun performance as Murphy, your typical high school burnout bully.
I would highly recommend this film. It’s your typical feelgood high school movie, but definitely ten notches more intelligent than say, Accepted. The performances are great, the issues are there, and the message is a pretty simple yet profound one: All the therapy that you need is just someone who can listen.
