Movie Review - 'Charlie Bartlett'

Charlie Bartlett

Starring Anton Yelchin, Kat Dennings, Hope Davis, and Robert Downey Jr.
Directed by Jon Poll
Rated R

There are two kinds of people: Those who loved high school and the rest of us. Charlie Bartlett, at least for a while, falls into both categories.

We suspect the trouble began for young Charlie (Anton Yelchin) when his father went away for tax evasion, leaving Charlie in the family’s giant mansion in the care of his mother (Hope Davis), who is somewhere between too forgiving and blissfully ignorant. Charlie’s rebellions have had him expelled from every private school around, which leaves only a public education to put Charlie’s head back on straight.

Of course, as a teenager growing up with a family psychiatrist on call may have more trouble relating to the rest of the kids in public school, but he also has more access to mountains of Ritalin, which, as it turns out, is Charlie’s best foot forward.

He becomes a sort of folk hero at his school, listening to the problems of the other kids, getting them medication from his shrink, and making the school a happier, more medicated place. This does not go unseen by the principal (Robert Downey, Jr.) or the principal’s daughter (Kat Dennings), though for widely divergent reasons.

Charlie Bartlett does not condone the use of prescription drugs on a widespread level so much as it acknowledges that American society has a problem with its kids and that the knee-jerk reaction to that is to drop pills down their throats and pray that it works. This is really a fairly broad satire although the performances are all so spot-on that you might not see the movie for what it really is.

Charlie is merely a by-product of his surroundings, a smart, industrious kid who has something to say. It’s not his fault the only time people start listening is when he’s handing out meds. But the drugs aren’t the issue in Charlie Bartlett, nor are they what you should take issue with. This is a movie about problem avoidance (or ignoring that problems even exist) and how it makes a fragile time in your life an even easier egg shell to crack. That’s the real reason Charlie connects with his classmates: He’s the only one listening.

Director Jon Poll leaves the judgments up to his audience, which is the only way this movie works. And it does work, in prescribed doses. It is a little too quickly resolved and some of the circumstances seem a little artificially heightened. However, if you know where it’s coming from and think you know where it’s headed, you’ll probably get sucked in by the great cast and fond memories of why you hated high school so much the first time.