Classic Review: The Perks of Being a Wallflower (2012)

For most people above the age of thirteen, the behavior of the teenage characters in The Perks of Being a Wallflower will make them cringe. They are either painfully earnest and sincere or desperate to prove how cool they are by only speaking through ironic use of platitudes. Nobody appears to be authentic and calling them pretentious would be an understatement. During the first thirty minutes of the film, it was hard to not turn it off, sitting through something that seemed far too indulgent of adolescent self obsession.

When The Perks of Being a Wallflower finally began to suggest that it did have a perspective on the affectations that these teenagers take on, this was a sigh of relief. It did eventually emerge that Stephen Chbosky, as both screenwriter and director, was aware of the fact that these teenagers weren’t nearly as worldly or intelligent as they wanted to believe that they were. Their self absorption and pretentiousness is seen as a product of their insecurity and efforts to figure out who they really are. The naïveté and awkwardness of the protagonist is genuine and we are meant to sense that these teenagers still have room to grow and evolve as they head off to university. Once it was clear that this wasn’t just the teen genre’s answer to Sean Penn’s Into the Wild, this was cause for another sigh of relief.

Chbosky actually adapted his own novel into a screenplay and it does retain many literary devices. The story is told from the perspective of Charlie Kelmeckis (Lerman), a nervous teenager who has suffered from clinical depression from a very young age. He wants to make new friends at high school and is upset by the fact that he can’t connect with the kids that he used to know in elementary school. When he falls in with a social group led by Patrick Stewart (Miller) and his stepsister Samantha Button (Watson), he finally begins to feel accepted. His attraction to Button complicates his other friendships and causes him to feel uncomfortable in her presence. He also becomes concerned about Stewart’s wellbeing, as he begins to learn more about his troubled relationship with Brad (Johnny Simmons). Kelmeckis discovers that coming out of his shell has real consequences and his dark past threatens to destroy his newfound happiness.

It would be difficult to label The Perks of Being a Wallflower as a shocking or original piece of work. It does cover many of the same themes that appear in most teen films but it does contain a couple of beautifully observed moments. It is particularly perceptive when it comes to high school relationships that are just too intense. Kelmeckis accidentally slips into a relationship with Mary Elizabeth (Mae Whitman), an opinionated goth girl, and we come to understand how he begins to hate her as they grow closer. When they were just friends, he wasn’t so put off by her eccentricities and needy behavior but he began to feel trapped with her when they began dating. She calls him every single day and doesn’t give him any room to breathe. He starts to violently resent a person who used to bring a smile to his face and he can’t possibly justify his extreme emotional response to her attempts to strengthen their bond. The scenes that depict the quick, painful destruction of this relationship had a surprisingly visceral impact.

Chbosky is on shakier ground when he tries to tackle big subjects like child abuse and homophobia. Even though one character has enough self awareness to proclaim that his life story has become the stuff of an after-school special, the film itself isn’t gritty enough to overcome the fact that it offers a surface level exploration of so many serious issues. It can feel like Chbosky just wanted to tick all of the tropes off of the list, without thinking of effective ways to incorporate them into a streamlined narrative. A whole film about the romance between Brad and Stewart would have been preferable to the brief snippets of their on-again/off-again affair that we do get to see. Viewing their struggles through the eyes of another character didn’t really add anything to that storyline and it could have easily stood on its own.

In the end, The Perks of Being a Wallflower is a decidedly imperfect first outing from the man who would go on to make the critically reviled Dear Evan Hansen, but it’s easy to still see some of the virtues that its legions of loyal fans are so passionate about. There is a lot to like here and, in being a period piece, it manages not to seem as dated as most teen films. Rather than making cringeworthy attempts to be hip and cool, it is happy to sit back and delve into an early 1990s milieu that doesn’t get explored all that often.

This is just one of the ways in which it manages to set itself apart from other high school dramas.

still courtesy of Summit Entertainment

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Zita Short

I am passionate about screwball comedies from the 1930s and certain actresses from the Golden Age of Hollywood. I’ll aim to review new Netflix releases and write features, so expect a lot of romantic comedies and cult favourites.