Teen movie captures the spirit of prior John Hughes films
There is something about the movie
”
Charlie Bartlett
”
that is reminiscent of John Hughes’ best films. It could be that
the main character in it just wants to be accepted, as with many of
Hughes’ characters. It could be that the kids all seem a lot more
grounded than the adults around them. Anton Yelchin’s Charlie
Bartlett seems to manifest the same kind of zaniness as Ferris
Bueller (Matthew Broderick), but also has the desperate need to be
liked by the popular kids of Andie Walsh (Molly Ringwald), of
”
Pretty in Pink.
”
Teen movie captures the spirit of prior John Hughes films
There is something about the movie “Charlie Bartlett” that is reminiscent of John Hughes’ best films. It could be that the main character in it just wants to be accepted, as with many of Hughes’ characters. It could be that the kids all seem a lot more grounded than the adults around them. Anton Yelchin’s Charlie Bartlett seems to manifest the same kind of zaniness as Ferris Bueller (Matthew Broderick), but also has the desperate need to be liked by the popular kids of Andie Walsh (Molly Ringwald), of “Pretty in Pink.”
The film was released in 2007 and is now available on DVD or cable. Charlie is a rich kid who is thrown out of yet another private school after he starts selling fake IDs to his classmates. His mother Marilyn (Hope Davis) is baffled about why he would do it since he clearly doesn’t need the money. But for Charlie it is all about being liked.
Instead of enrolling him in another boarding school, his mother decides to put him in a local public school. From the start Charlie stands out in his private school blazer. He doesn’t help himself by opting to take the bus to school instead of his chauffeured car – the bus happens to be the one for special education students. On the first day of class, Charlie acts more grown up than some of the staff and is mistaken for a teacher. The school bully Murphy (Tylet Hilton) picks him as a target.
Charlie is miserable enough in the first week of school that his mother decides to send him to a psychiatrist. The doctor tries to get Charlie to talk about his father who has been absent, but Charlie refuses. It’s unclear whether his father is dead, has left the family or if it is something more, but Charlie won’t talk about him. The doctor diagnoses him as having attention deficit disorder and puts him on Ritalin to help him focus.
His experience with Ritalin gives him an idea that soon has him as getting the attention he craves. He sets up shop in the boys bathroom, where he listens to students, offers some advice and dispenses medication, much the same way a psychiatrist would do. He even enlists the help of bully Murphy to serve as pharmacist. Charlie listens to the other students, and using the diagnostic manual, he comes up with a list of symptoms for his own visits to the doctor. He visits multiple doctors and builds up a collection of meds that include Ritalin, Paxil, Zoloft, Ativan and other drugs for depression, anxiety and a variety of other illnesses. For a small fee, Charlie and Murphy dispense the appropriate medication to other students.
Principal Nathan Gardner (Robert Downey Jr.) doesn’t like Charlie from the start and knows he’s up to something though he is not quite sure what it is. Gardner is not very well liked, which he doesn’t mind, but he is also not very well respected by his students, colleagues or superintendent. He is especially disliked when he announces plans to install video cameras in the student lounge. When he is at home, he spends his time in his home office, drinking or out in his yard playing with a model boat in his swimming pool. He goes a little over the edge when he realizes his daughter Susan (Kat Dennings) is involved with Charlie.
Susan and Charlie have a few things in common – they both live in a household with one parent and the parent with whom they live is less than a functioning adult. Susan reveals that her dad fell apart when her mother left him. He drank, attempted suicide and eventually sought help. Charlie’s mother is on medication and never disciplines him anytime he gets into trouble.
To boost his popularity even more, Charlie decides to use the money he’s collected from selling medication to throw a big party for his fellow classmates.
Charlie’s popularity doesn’t come without a cost, as some of the students he is “treating” have serious mental illnesses, including Kip Crombwell (Mark Rendall) who is depressed and suicidal.
Despite some of the serious undertones of the movie, the movie is really quite clever and funny. Downey Jr. is at his best as an alcoholic single dad and principal who doesn’t really seem to like his job. Davis is her usually off-beat self as Charlie’s mother. Yelchin plays Charlie with an earnestness that makes him sympathetic despite is desperate need to be popular.
