Acorn

Issue date: 2/29/08 Section: Arts and Leisure

Media Credit: fasthack.com Anton Yelchin stars as Charlie Bartlett, a wealthy teenager who gets kicked out of his prep school.

Roughly three-quarters of the way through Jon Poll's would-be teen classic "Charlie Bartlett," the title character stands before an audience of his peers and announces, "Ladies and gentlemen…you don't need me."

Oddly enough, it was the first moment in over an hour that had resonated with any semblance of truth.

After watching this long-delayed movie shamelessly plagiarize such seminal coming-of-age films such as "Harold and Maude," "Ferris Bueller's Day Off," and "Rushmore," I realized that I didn't need "Charlie Bartlett" the film any more than the myriad of high school clichés populating the screen needed Charlie Bartlett the character. At long last, something in this misconceived mess seemed honest.

As portrayed by the disturbingly fetal-looking Anton Yelchin, Charlie Bartlett is the kind of teenager only a Hollywood screenwriter could dream up-outrageously wealthy,

Charlie spends his school days toting his attaché case down predictably treacherous hallways and his weekends tickling the ivories and singing Cat Stevens duets with his heavily medicated mother (Hope Davis, nobly struggling to imbue her character with a soul). Forced to see a psychiatrist after being booted from his prep school, Charlie decides to sell his stash of psychotropic drugs to his angst-ridden classmates while serving as their self-appointed therapist.

This inexplicable decision sends Charlie on a whirlwind journey towards maturity that will only be surprising to those who have never seen a coming-of-age movie before.

And here is where "Charlie Bartlett" really lost me-what starts out rather feebly attempting to be a smarter, stranger saga of adolescence gradually reveals itself to be nothing more than a capital-T Teen Movie.

There's the obligatory love interest (Kat Dennings), the requisite stodgy authority figure (Robert Downey, Jr.), and a mohawked bully with a heart of gold (Tyler Hilton).

Yet even with all the usual signifiers, the film has a blessedly singular method of ensuring nothing resembles the experience of any real-life teenager in any way, shape or form.

One particularly offensive example: Charlie uses his considerable means to throw a wild party in some sort of abandoned rock venue, complete with an anonymous neo-new wave band and a room in which a vintage convertible is propped up in front of a screen showing black-and-white movies. Takes me back to my own carefree high school days, that one does.

Continued...

Page 1 of 2 next >

Article Tools