Susan O'Sullivan on the delicate charm of The Perks of Being a Wallflower is a highly anticipated adaptation of the cult novel by Stephen Chbosky.
Many of you have possibly read it, many more of you are aware of it because it is Emma Watson’s first film venture after Harry Potter.
The film’s director is none other than the author himself. Luckily for us, Chbosky figured he was qualified enough to take this project on. Snark aside, this leads to a faithful adaptation of the original material that is so often lost in novel-to-screen misfortunes.
The charm that made the novel work in the first place is its protagonist. Here we have a social outsider, Charlie, who is totally aware of that fact, and instead of trying too hard, he is legitimately just trying to find out where he belongs. The story begins on his first day of High School. Having lost his best friend to suicide just a few months previously, this for Charlie offers a possible rebirth. This is a coming of age story without cloying sentimentality.
Charlie (Logan Lerman) is a wallflower, this he only comes to realise when he meets his rag tag group of friends. Patrick and Sam, played by Ezra Miller and Emma Watson respectively, form a catalyst that enables Charlie’s transcendence.
Chbosky made some grand assumptions about Charlie, aligning him with the likes of literary legends Jay Gatsby and Holden Caulfield, and thus guiding the audience to locating the geography of the character within the pop culture gene pool of stereotypes. Lerman manages to do him justice, but one cannot help ridicule a performance based on your interpretation of the literary character; one online critic said Charlie on screen wasn’t quite sensitive enough; I for one thought he wasn’t quite awkward enough. Pfft, Hollywood.
So the performance worth typing about didn’t come from Lerman, nor did it come from Watson’s carefully-crafted, conscientiously-enunciated yank accent. Ezra Miller is that star in our midst. He is Patrick, a wildly free spirited agent with energy beyond the understanding of the suburbia these teens are lost in. Miller already showed prowess in the eponymous role in We Need to Talk About Kevin (a chilling must-see). There he owned calculating psychopath, here he epitomises a whole different kind of beast – a confident irreverent teenager, willingly living outside of a normal social milieu. Miller invigorates Patrick with a passion and dynamism that can easily get lost on page, but the actor ensured that at least on screen this boy would burn bright.
The symbolism of the mix tape captures the heart of The Perks of Being a Wallflower. It’s the currency of love and friendship, how the lives of our protagonist and his friends are bonded forever. It’s a youthful motif, ironically perhaps, because cassettes are basically now obsolete. The art of the mix tape bookends the film, proving through whatever tragedies Charlie may face, music and friends will be ever present. Life offers a rich and ritualistic continuity, as long as your inner wallflower is willing to embrace it.
Try as you might, and as I too attempted, to be resistant to its nostalgic charm, The Perks of Being a Wallflower will seduce you with its euphoric renderings of the past, (the film is set in the early 90s), youth, and new experiences.
Images From: Summit Pictures
