Smells like teen angst: The Perks of Being a Wallflower revisits a familiar theme

A quiet kid who enjoys reading classic literary novels more than playing sports, Charlie (Logan Lerman) has some well-founded fears as he begins freshman year of high school. He’s afraid the other students won’t like him and that he’ll have trouble making friends. It’s not a surprise, then, that his fears are realized on the first day of class when he can’t even find anyone to sit with him for lunch. Sucks to be young and misunderstand. That’s the premise of The Perks of Being a Wallflower, writer-director Stephen Chbosky’s adaptation of his own epistolary novel. The film revisits a familiar theme – teen angst. And though there’s a bit too much melodrama, the film does a reasonable job of presenting an engaging coming-of-age story.

Charlie has a rough first day, and the only “friend” he makes is his English teacher (Paul Rudd) who encourages him to aspire to become a writer. Things begin to turn around, however, when Charlie meets Sam (Emma Watson) and her flamboyant half-brother Patrick (Ezra Miller). The two introduce him to an alternative world of film (The Rocky Horror Picture Show) and music (The Smiths), and Charlie quickly falls for Sam. While Sam appears interested in Charlie, too, she generally dates older guys, and Charlie has a hard time finding the right moment to officially ask her out.

While the first half of the film proceeds at a snail’s pace, the second half escalates. Charlie dates one of Sam’s friends and then realizes he’s made a mistake; the break-up alienates him from his new friends and he begins to have a meltdown. Patrick gets in a fight in the cafeteria after a kid calls him a fag. And Sam begins dating some pretentious college guy. It’s all a bit overwhelming and it’s not giving too much of the plot away to reveal that Charlie – who has had mental issues ever since his aunt died — ends up losing it.

While the melodrama winds up being a bit excessive, the film’s terrific soundtrack carries it. Music supervisor Alexandra Patsavas (the woman behind the Twilight soundtracks) selected a who’s who of early ’90s alternative acts, including Sonic Youth, Galaxie 500, XTC, Dexys Midnight Runners, New Order and Cracker. While these bands probably won’t appeal to the demographic that the film is designed to appeal to, they do make it something to which we forty-somethings can relate.