The Perks of Being a Wallflower

After having a brief but intensely passionate love affair with Chbosky's book, I wasn't expecting much from this film adaptation. From the trailer, Logan Lorman looked like a distinctly boring Charlie who would ruin the subtleties of the protagonist's character, and Emma Watson (last seen as Hermione Granger, a witch) and Ezra Miller (last seen as Kevin, a psychopath) seemed to make an alarmingly odd couple as the benevolent seniors Sam and Patrick. However, my heart lifted when I realised that Chbosky himself had written the screenplay, and I needn't have worried about the acting talent.



The psycopath, the witch and the wallflower.

In the book, the way we are introduced to Charlie is through a letter he wrote to an unknown girl who he assumed would be sympathetic to his life's struggles. What this put-upon girl must have thought when she began receiving endless letters from an unknown source is interesting to consider, but Chbosky used this to instantly win over the reader to Charlie's unique way of thinking. It takes longer to establish that relationship with Charlie in the film, which feels slightly less intimate than the epistolary novel. But Lorman plays Charlie's slow descent into depression brilliantly, and has enough charm to keep the audience rooting for him throughout the film.

Meanwhile, Watson captures the hollowness behind Sam's glamour perfectly, while Miller does the same for the misery behind Patrick's seemingly endless chirpiness ("below average!" he squeals as he receives a C minus). The fact that Chbosky's wonderful dialogue is intact for the most part is one of the key attractions to this film, and it seems he has made notable improvements to his original story, particularly the heartbreaking scenes with the psychiatrist near the end.

This film will be picked on, much like the books, for its two central quotes. "In that moment, we were infinite" and "we accept the love we think we deserve" are practically gushing with sentimentality. But somehow they work in this film, and there's many less overblown lines to compliment them.

At this point I think it is appropriate to swallow my dignity and admit to nearly crying at the end. But then there's this wonderful euphoric moment where Charlie comes out the end of a dark tunnel (metaphorically and literally). And I think this will succeed in giving people hope that one day they too will come out of the dark tunnel that is adolescence. And while I watched that scene, in that moment, I was infinite (not really).

When I was leaving the cinema I was utterly shell shocked, and speechless as I stumbled back to the multi-story car park. And I think this is the sign of a truly good film, one that really takes your breath away (and makes you look like an idiot in car parks). I will be watching it again.

Rating: 10/10