Perks of Being a Wallflower (film review)

Right after I saw the film and went out of the cinema, I told myself that my plan to read the book before watching the movie backfired on me. I shouldn’t have done that.

Since we all know that the movie is an adaptation of the novel with the same title, a comparison between the film and the book is inevitable. But for the sake of fair review let’s try to critique the film independently of the book.
It was definitely an entertaining movie. It’s not your typical high-school flick wherein the storyline solely focuses on teenage-love, sex, drugs, alcohol, partying and other teen-troubles. Perks delves on much deeper subjects that teenagers go through such as the complexities of  family relationship, child abuse, teen depression, homosexuality and the traumatic impact it may cause.
The film captured the 90’s tone pretty well. Also, the use of music made the movie come alive. I particularly enjoyed the scene wherein Charlie was just lying on his bed while listening to the song Asleep by The Smiths. The tunnel scene was pretty brilliant too when Sam (Watson) went to the back of the pick-up truck and did the titanic pose while the music on the radio was playing out loud. Any scene where music was involved was a good scene.


The acting of the leads were pretty compelling too. I almost cried on the scene where Sam and Charlie was on the bed, about to kiss for the first time. Logan Lerman was an okay Charlie and Emma Watson was an okay Sam. I particularly adored Ezra Miller who played Nothing/Patrick. In my opinion he was the only one who nailed his character. He exceeded my expectations for Patrick. I thought he brought just the right amount of queerness and comedy to the role that made him so entertaining to watch.
Now for the comparison, was justice given to the book? Yeah, absolutely. I mean, how can it be bad when the author Stephen Chbosky also the directed the film?
However, may I just say that there is a tiny bit of disappointed that I felt. Okay here it goes. As much as it pains me to say it, there really was. I know it’s my own damn fault to be disappointed since my expectation was set pretty high. Like what I said at the beginning of this review, it wasn’t the best idea to read the book first.
This is my observation: All of my friends that saw the movie and did not read the book liked the movie. That’s good. However, all of my friends who read the book and then saw the movie didn’t like the movie. That’s not so good.
Perhaps that’s only fair though, I mean exactly how many people have read the book, right? Maybe less than 5% of those who came to see the film? It’s also understandable that they had to tone the sex and drugs way down since the movie has got to appeal to a much wider audience -- It’s PG13.
Movie, okay. Book, brilliant. With all due respect to the author, Mr. Stephen Chbosky sir, I loved your novel. On the other hand, I’m curious now if the movie would have turned out better in the hands of a different director. I meant no disrespect there of any kind. It’s  really  hard to pin-point where the movie fell short in my opinion.
Let’s go to casting. What do you guys honestly think? I think the idea of Percy Jackson and Hermione Granger together would have probably worked anywhere else but this film. Lerman did try to channel Charlie and his awkwardness but it’s missing something. Perhaps he’s too good-looking for the role? I dunno. I’m imagining a young Joseph Gordon –Levitt playing Charlie to perfection. Anyway, that’s just me.
Same thing with Sam, Emma Watson was an okay choice for the role. I believe she captured the free-spirit nature that Sam has. However, I pictured Sam a lot tougher, rougher and Rock n’ Roll. My friend and I agreed that a young Mila Kunis could have been the perfect Sam. Again, I don’t know. Maybe because Sam is a chain-smoker in the book? Emma looked too dainty and proper to be Sam. She’s very beautiful though.
Mary Elizabeth? I thought Mae Whitman was too punk-rock. The guy who played Craig was too thin, isn’t he supposed to be ‘hunky.’ Nina Dobrev was too pretty to play Charlie’s sister and she didn’t embody her supposed ‘stubbornness.’
Well, I’m not a film producer. I’m just a crazy small-time blogger that doesn’t even make money from this. I’m just purely stating my opinion here.
To conclude this post, I still say go watch the film and see what the perks of being a wallflower truly are. Now if you love the novel as much as I do, still, go watch the film. It’s indeed fun seeing the characters that we love come to life.
And you know what, buy the book too and compare. See if I make any sense here.
No hating. Just blogging.
To Charlie! Cheers!