A movie filled with friendship, warmth, sex, coming of age, love, family and sadness is one that no one wants to miss. The Perks of Being a Wallflower is one of those movies that will move an audience to realize how much friendship and love is so important. This movie is based off on the critically aclaimed novel written by Stephen Chbosky. Each scene has a story behind it and allows viewers to enter the lives of one young boy who discovers himself with help from his friends along the way. This movie was done beautifully and with a magnificent cast.
Charlie, played by Logan Lerman, is a 15-year-old boy who has suffered the suicide of his best friend. He copes with this issue by writing letters to a stranger throughout the movie and has fears and anxiety about entering high school alone. He is a very shy and always analyzing every situation in his mind and is always reading a new book that his mentor and English teacher, Bill, played by Paul Rudd lets him read and write about. Bill sees a fire inside Charlie and wants him to pursue writing as a career in the future. Charlie has the courage to approach one of his classmates, Patrick, played by Ezra Miller, and meets Patrick’s stepsister, Sam, played by the amazing Emma Watson, who are both seniors in the high school. They soon become Charlie’s best friends in school and for a lifetime.
Through out the movie, the audience learns about each character in much detail. We learn about Patrick dealing with his sexuality of being gay and having a relationship with a popular football player in high school and how he deals with keeping it a secret. We learn about Charlie going through his first date, first kiss, dealing with bullies, experimenting with drugs and alcohol, and fighting with friends and gaining them back. We witness Charlie and Sam’s love for each other developing in a beautiful way. You see them interacting with each other by Charlie always helping her in anyway he can, especially when it comes for Sam to apply for college and study for her SATs. They keep it a secret from Patrick and his other friends because Sam has a boyfriend.
Charlie has a good home life with his older brother off in college and his older sister a senior in high school. He idolizes his Aunt Helen, played by Melanie Lynskey by saying, “she is my favorite person in the whole world.” He has many flashbacks of her before she was killed in a car cash when he was very young. Charlie holds a family secret that has been terrifying him his whole life. He suffers from many mental breakdowns and at the end of the movie goes to a mental hospital for help.
Charlie expresses his feelings of hope for his future toward the end and trying his best to not be a wallflower and to meet new people his sophomore year of high school. He discovers he needs to be involved in life and to not just sit back and watch it fly by before his eyes. This movie was something that everyone needs to go see and realize that, “We accept the love we think we deserve.”
