The Perks of Being a Wallflower
Directed: Stephan
Chbosky
Starring: Logan
Genre: Drama, Romance
Stars: 5/5
I
have to say for this actual film, I was never particularly bothered about
seeing it upon its release, but after hearing it’s “film of the year” for 2012
and was highly rated by many sites and reviews – I decided to add it to my
LoveFilm list. When it came through the post I was eager to watch it, to simply
understand the hype for it. I have to say I was not at all disappointed. From
the moment it started, till it finished, I was hooked!
The
film starts with showing us Charlie (Logan Lerman) at a desk in his room on the
eve of attending high school. He’s writing a letter to an unknown pen pal
sharing his worries for the days and term ahead. Feeling like he’s not going to
make friends, he just attends lessons and keeps his head down for the best
part. He befriends his teacher Mr. Anderson (Paul Rudd) who picks up on his
great abilities on English Language and starts giving him added assignments.
Charlie
attends a school football game alone one evening and sits near the flamboyant
Patrick (Ezra Miller). As they start to enjoy the game Sam (Emma Watson) joins
with them and at that moment Charlie is hit by Sam’s beauty. He becomes
acquainted to the pair and heads home in high spirits, only to arrive home to
witness his sister Candance being attacked by her boyfriend. Charlie is nerved
by this as his Aunt got abused by her partners before she died so he goes to
help her only for her to swear him to secrecy from their parents.
At
a homecoming party Charlie is stood alone around the edge of the hall, seeing
his sister with her boyfriend he goes joins Patrick and Sam. After the
homecoming he goes with them to a house party, there he meets Mary Elizabeth,
Alice and Bob. He also gets to meet Sam’s boyfriend Craig and is instantly
jealous. Bob encourages Charlie to eat a pot brownie (which he had no idea was
one) and as he gets high all the party members are amused by the stuff he says.
Sam saves his from total embarrassment as he says he want a strawberry
milkshake and takes him to the kitchen where he compliments her on her eyes and
then tells her about the death of his best friend. He then leaves the kitchen
to go upstairs to the toilet and accidentally walks in on Patrick with Brad
(Johnny Simmons) kissing. Patrick is panicked as Brad doesn’t want their
relationship to get out (as his father doesn’t approve) and makes him promise
he’ll never repeat what he saw. He agrees not to say anything. Sam meanwhile is
left shocked and goes speaks to Patrick saying she doesn’t think he has any
friends – they both welcome him with open arms into the group.
(Sam through the Tunnel)
Whilst
they both drive Charlie home, an unknown song comes up on the radio and tells
Patrick to drive through the tunnel, where she gets in the back of the pick up
truck and waves her arms around. Charlie again is completely stunned by her
natural beauty.
Sam
doesn’t do too well in tests so in the coming months up to Christmas, Charlie
says he would help her revise. At Christmas all the friends participate in a
“Secret Santa” gift exchange. On the last night of the exchange Sam takes
Charlie up to her room to show him, her gift – A typewriter. Charlie is wowed
by this present. They start talking about first kisses and she shared that her
first kiss was by her father’s boss who molested her in her younger years. He
tells Sam that he’s never kissed anyone before and she says she want his first
kiss to be by someone who loves him and the pair end up kissing.
On
Charlie’s birthday he has flashbacks of his Aunt Helen who died in a car
accident that same night after getting him a present. At a new years party he
takes a LSD and has many flashbacks of the things that happened surrounding
Aunt Helen's death and their relationship together, he gets found passed out by
the police.
After
being dismissed he attended a party with the gang and had Mary Elizabeth as a
partner to the dance, they end up going back to her house and making out – she
then announces he’s her boyfriend now. Charlie doesn’t really like her like
that and ends up going along with it because he doesn’t know how to break up
with M-E without hurting her feelings, but has no interest in her neediness.
Whilst at a party with the gang they play truth or dare, Patrick on Charlies
turn dares him to kiss the prettiest girl in the room, and everyone assumes
he’d go for Mary Elizabeth but he jumps out at Sam. The pair is angry with what
he did and Patrick tells him to give it time before approaching the group
again.
(Charlie kisses Sam in the Dare)
Being
back to being alone again, Charlie starts to isolate himself and the memories
of Aunt Helen worsen. After meeting with Bob, Charlie finds out that Brads father
found out about Brad and Patrick's relationship. He tries to talk to Patrick only
for him to tell him to leave him alone for the moment. Brad is seen with a
massive bruise on his face and tells people a wrong tale as to why he got the
mark. Patrick walks by Brads table at lunch and he calls him a faggot – then
the pair end up fighting on the cafeteria floor. Charlie intervenes and tells
them to back off his friends.
Patrick
is heartbroken that he and Brad had to end their relationship and ends up
getting closer to Charlie. After they've been spending a lot of time together
Patrick one night tries to kiss Charlie. With no reaction Patrick bursts into
tears and apologises. Sam ends her relationship with Craig as she finds out he
cheated on her 3 times.
Sam
gets through to Graduation and is off to Penn State
The
next day he watches Sam leave for college and is feeling upset. Going home he
receives more flashbacks of his repressed memories of Aunt Helen who used to
abuse him as a young boy and ends up calling Cadence saying it was his fault
she’s dead. Getting the police to the house so that Charlie couldn’t harm
himself, before he could they got to him and he blacked out.
We
then see him in a hospital confused as to why he’s there. The Doctor tells his
parents of the damage that his Aunt did and that the reasons for his breakdowns
were because of repressed memories. On being discharged Sam and Patrick meet
with Charlie and go to a restaurant. On leaving Sam says she found out the name
of the song that was playing when they first went through the tunnel together.
Charlie gets in the back of the truck this time and screams on his way out of
the tunnel.
I
adored this film and like I said at the start I was hooked from the moment I
turned it on to the moment the credits rolled. I’m glad it was a long film as I
don’t think I would’ve been satisfied with it only being an hour long. The plot
had plenty of room to develop and it did develop in an even pace which was
perfect for this genre. There were no moments that I felt it was rushed – I got
everything I wanted from the storyline.
I
really liked Charlie’s character and loved the way he was portrayed as shy and
nervous, it brought real depth to the film and the character. It also was
lovely to see him grow more confident throughout the film. It was his story and
it was well documented – I want to read the book now.
The
whole crew was fantastic, it was especially nice to see not all well recognised
cast members as it allowed there to be interest in how the character shall be
played. I have to say it’s now one of my favourite films and shall enjoy
watching once again someday!
I
have given it a 5/5 because I felt it was very mysterious and gripping film, it
was very interesting all round, there was never a moment where I felt like I
was loosing interest or wondering what was going on – fabulous film!
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