No matter who you are and no matter what kind of situation you’re in, there are always those certain moments in life when you feel like nothing can bring you down simply because you’re with the people you love the most; you feel alive. According to Charlie in The Perks of Being a Wallflower, these are the moments that make you feel “infinite”.
Based on the critically acclaimed novel, Stephen Chbosky’s The Perks of Being a Wallflower recently hit the big screens in theaters perfectly portrayed those mixed emotions that come during our youthful.
The story, set in Pittsburgh in the early 90s, is about a teenage boy named Charlie (played by Logan Lerman) who writes a series of letters to someone he only refers to as “friend” throughout his freshmen year of high school.
Though Charlie is depressed throughout the year and worries that he “might get bad again”, he becomes friends with seniors Patrick (Ezra Miller) and his step-sister Sam (Emma Watson) who introduce Charlie to their world of house parties, friendships, late nights eating out at Kings Family Restaurant and the exhilaration of flying through the Fort Pitt Tunnel while listening to David Bowie’s “Hero” on the radio. As Sam says to Charlie, “Welcome to the island of misfit toys.”
Chbosky, the author of the novel as well as the writer and director of the film, couldn’t have chosen a better cast. Logan Lerman played Charlie exactly how he is described in the book: too tenderhearted to get out of a bad relationship, naive, and of course, a wallflower. Emma Watson was a great pick to play Sam because of her subtle beauty, as Charlie describes her to be in the novel, despite her bad history of being with guys who didn’t treat her very well at all. Ezra Miller played Patrick perfectly; a hilarious and flamboyantly gay teenager who is heartbroken over a football player that never admits to his own sexuality. The rest of the cast was also perfect, each relatable in their own way.
Chbosky kept the key points of the novel that makes the movie suitable for any age group. There were scenes that made me smile, like where Charlie, Sam and Patrick dance to “Come On Eileen” at the homecoming dance and scenes that made me tear-up, like when Charlie spends his last evening with Sam before she goes off to college.
The Perks of Being a Wallflower is a heartwarming film that touches the soul. From the little things, like laughing with your best friends, to bigger problems, like struggling with bad relationships, sexual orientation, depression, or being a wallflower, the film affects everyone differently in a way that will make viewers say, “I know exactly how that feels.”
Chbosky sends a message saying that no matter who you are, everyone makes a difference in someone’s life simply by understanding. Also through hard times, there are always moments “when you know you’re not a sad story”. And because of these moments, no matter who you are, we can all be, as David Bowie sang, “heroes, just for one day”.
