The Perks of Being a Wallflower: A Coming-of-Age Story
The setting is a suburb of Pittsburgh in the early 1990s. Freshman Charlie (Lerman) is struggling to adapt: he has no friends except his English teacher (Rudd). He falls in with a group of older kids, punks and goths, including the homosexual Patrick (Miller) and his stepsister Sam (Watson).
You have to approach any coming-of-age film with caution. Attempts to portray the lives of high school students are fraught with the most boring clichés, especially if (as, alas, happens all too often) they are made by people who have either completely forgotten their distant youth or are horrified by the hormonal shifts in their own offspring. At first glance, it seems that watching a film directed by Stephen Chbosky based on his own novel, published in 1999, is completely unnecessary: the usual cocktail of acid trips, teenage suicide, “The Rocky Horror Picture Show”, Tom Savini, homosexuality, truth or dare, and music by Dexys Midnight Runners. If you think about it, it’s a very accurate description…
Like almost any film about teenagers, “The Perks of Being a Wallflower” is often clumsy, and sometimes just embarrassing. From a technical point of view, Chbosky’s directing is inconsistent, and the script occasionally contains blatant blunders. And yet, there is something about this film that makes people in their thirties see themselves in these teenagers. The soundtrack is also excellently selected (the scene in which Charlie, Sam and Patrick are tripping out to Bowie’s “Heroes”, repeatedly asking each other: “What the hell is this song?” makes a surprisingly magical impression).
Perks oMost importantly, Chbosky has cast the actors perfectly. Ezra Miller seems strained by the role of “colorful gay best friend”, but he plays it extremely carefully and tactfully. As for the “wallflower” Charlie himself, Logan Lerman is surprisingly sweet. Charlie tells his story in letters to an imaginary friend, and we see how the world around him is revealed to him in all its incomprehensible, terrifying and delightful complexity. Even when he gets into a predicament with a clear melodramatic tinge, you still believe in his emotions and feelings.
Emma Watson’s Transformation
And, of course, Emma Watson, who has grown up, turned into an American and become the ideal of all the nerds in the district. Emma suits both the American accent and the liberation after the role of Hermione. This girl will go far.