REVIEW
Charlie Bartlett – A Bit Rebellious but Has its Heart in the Right Place

It seems today that if a kid is disobedient, irritable or given to bursts of anger (basically, if a kid is a kid) parents immediately take them to a doctor and put them on Ritalin. Rather than struggling through the concepts of discipline and self-control, parents step back from their “troubled children” and seek out professional medical help. 

In many ways, this action is a self-fulfilling prophecy for when parents step away, becoming distant and wrapped in the responsibilities and cares of their own world, children then begin to develop the problems they “supposedly” have - often times in an attempt to simply get the attention they want from their parents in the first place. It is this twisted dance that the engaging and remarkably fresh Charlie Bartlett revolves around.

Charlie Bartlett is a typical teen – Sure he’s been kicked out of every private school he’s attended, his mother Marilyn is stuck in her own affluent world and he is chauffeured around town in a limo – but at his core, Charlie just wants to be liked . . . and he’s found that people like him when he listens.

Starting classes at a new public school, Charlie can’t figure out how to be popular . . . until he enlists bad boy Murphey Bivens (Tyler Hilton) to run interference while he provides therapy and prescription medication to the masses in a deserted Boys bathroom.  His unconventional ways soon earn him the attention of the pretty Susan (Kat Dennings) and her father, Principal Gardner (Robert Downey Jr.).     

After stirring up trouble, driving a wedge between father and daughter and vaulting to the verge of expulsion once again, Charlie begins to see a different side of Principal Gardner while Gardner notes the holes in Charlie’s armor. The two being to poke around each others entrenched defenses, ultimately discovering that they have a good deal more in common than they initially thought.

The script is oddly selective, at times choppy and often lacking in overall cohesiveness.  But despite the fact that it often feels as if editor Alan Baumgarten chose to highlight scenes most films would simply give the boot, this film is remarkably fresh. By shunning stereotypical, rebellious teenage characters, first time director Jon Poll turns a bright, beaming spotlight on an unconventional tale of an unconventional teen.

While the question of whether an off-balance feeling was intentionally cemented into the script by writer Gustin Nash and developed further in each scene by Poll isn’t clearly answered, it is a question that falls by the wayside in light of the powerhouse performances that embolden and enliven this film from beginning to end. Lead Anton Yelchin is absolutely phenomenal.  He has such a genuine, unaffected presence that, much like his character Charlie, he simply pulls people in. His face is mesmerizing, clearly displaying his desire to be popular without the slightest hitch.

Robert Downey Jr. is stellar as usual.  With the recent Zodiac, A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints, A Scanner Darkly and now, Charlie Bartlett, glittering on his resume, it is clear this reformed bad boy is firmly back on track. The intensity he brings to the frustrated and depressed Gardner is magnetic and a later scene with Yelchin is frighteningly fantastic.

Little known, Tyler Hilton (Walk the Line) and Kat Dennings (The 40-Year Old Virgin) are both impressive in their supporting roles.  Hilton’s pill-pedaling, bad-boy Murphey is dead-on while Dennings sneaks succinctly under your guard and dazzles in the role of Susan Gardner. Hope Davis doesn’t conjure up as striking a performance as usual (thinking Proof here) but she is still perfectly disconnected from reality as Charlie’s mother, Marilyn Bartlett.

Overall, Charlie Bartlett is enjoyable, thought provoking and engaging. With the right marketing campaign, it will do well with both a teenage and adult audience as it offers genuine teen characters and a fresh, no-holds-barred look into the age-old struggle between adult and adolescent. It is a film that, in many ways, mirrors its lead character – a bit rebellious but always has its heart in the right place.