Perks of Being a Wallflower is a movie adaptation of the original book, which was written and then directed by author Stephen Chbosky.
This movie knows how to deliver. Picture from google images
“Perks,” set in Pittsburgh in the years 1991, and ’92, is about Charlie (Logan Lerman, Percy Jackson’s: The Lightning Thief) a boy dreading his first day of high school. Charlie had lost his best friend to suicide, and begins to form a mental illness and has occasional black-outs. Charlie sits alone at lunch and is reluctant to answer questions in his English class. Even though he knows everything that the teacher is asking, he is worried that people would think that he was a nerd…well, more of a nerd than they already think he is.
While attending one of the school’s football games with his sister, Charlie runs into Patrick (Ezra Miller) a senior who is in Charlie’s Shop class and is invited to sit with him. Things start off awkward; no one says a word, but when Sam (Emma Watson, Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows: Part 2) Patrick’s step sister comes to the game, Charlie gets nervous and tries to make a good first impression on them. When it’s time for Homecoming Charlie is back to his regular self, sitting up against the gym walls watching everyone dance and have a good time. Then he sees Patrick and Sam and makes the approach to see if he could join them. When they notice him they grab him and start dancing like no one is there. Then began the school year that Charlie was hoping for.
After devouring a brownie laced with Marijuana, Charlie reveals the story of his best friend killing himself to Sam, and she is shocked. When Sam tells Patrick of Charlie’s burden, they give him the title “Wallflower” and invite him to be apart of their clique. It was the happiest Charlie had felt in awhile.
As the year passed by in front of him, Charlie realized he only had a short time left with his friends, so he tried to make the most of it by trying to hang out with them as much as possible. Was it too much for Sam and Patrick? After one false move of kissing Sam, Charlie is kicked out of the group because Sam has a boyfriend already. Once again Charlie was alone and this time, his loneliness lasted longer than a few days. Months passed by before anything happened. This situation wasn’t the best to be put back in the group.
Patrick was hiding his relationship with the school’s Quarterback Brad because Brad didn’t want his father to find out due to his dad’s homo-phobic personality. When Brad’s father did find out, he beat him so badly it gave him a black eye and caused him to ignore Patrick. One day during lunch, Brad tripped Patrick and started making fun of him, but Patrick wasn’t going to take that so he hit Brad, but later got jumped by Brad’s friends. Charlie saw the circle gathered in the middle of the cafeteria and saw what was going on. When he looked up, Charlie saw Brad’s friends lying on the floor with bloody noses. When Sam told him what had happened, she thanked him and they all became friends once more.
When the school year was finished, everyone went their separate ways: some went to college, some started work, and Charlie was left alone again, but not permanently. His friends came and visited him as much as they could during the weekends and breaks. It just got Charlie more exited for college.
When I was going to see this movie, I thought it was going to be a waste of time and money. This movie opened my eyes to the life of a boy who is like any of us: nervous during the first days of high school, not knowing what was in store for us, or if we were going to make any friends. Things tend to unfold as they should.
“But even if we don’t have the power to choose where we come from, we can still choose where we go from there.” – Charlie
Rating: ★★★★
