Charlie Bartlett review

Charlie Bartlett is a troubled teenager. He's had a privileged up-bringing but has been kicked out of just about every private school in the state. In desperation his mother Marilyn sends him to a public school to see if that can sort out his wayward tendencies.

All Charlie really wants is to be liked. An absent father and a mother who finds solace at the bottom of the bottle only serve to heighten his sense of alienation and at his new school he stands out like a sore thumb. Despite his friendly and cheerful demeanour he is bullied by the class thug and is sent to the family psychiatrist for help. While on the couch he notices how willing the doctor is to prescribe drugs for his problem rather than offer meaningful help and so hatches a plan to make himself more popular in the eyes of his peers.

He teams up with the school bully Murphey to supply the pupils with the prescription drugs that he scores from his shrink for a school dance. Before they know it they have a thriving business and popularity to boot. Now that everyone wants to know Charlie he finds that they all have some form of mental angst or anxiety they want to speak about and he is only to happy to step in as a makeshift councillor.

Enter Susan, the school beauty and daughter of Principle Gardner (Robert Downey Jr). The two form a fast friendship much to the Principle's dismay as he resents Charlie's easy manner with the daughter that is he becoming increasingly estranged from. When Susan explains her home life, Charlie realises that his troubles are pretty much the same as hers and sets about seeing if he can solve everyone's problems.

Anton Yelchin puts in a fine performance as Charlie and who would have thought a few years ago that Robert Downey Jr would become part of the establishment? He plays the adult role model steadily crumbling under the weight of it all with a gentle touch.

Charlie Bartlett would like to see itself as a Ferris Bueller's Day Off for the noughties but it never reaches those comic heights. As a drama it never really engages the audience to care enough about the various troubles of the students, even when those woes start to come thick and fast.

Like Charlie Bartlett himself, this is a film that is desperately trying to be liked. B for effort, but only a C+ for attainment.