A fine coming of age drama

Rating: 9/10 (28 January 2015)

Charlie is just starting high school and things aren't going well and it looks as if he is going to have a lonely three years. Then he becomes friends with Patrick, a senior who is in one of Charlie's classes, and his step sister Sam. He is soon hanging out with them and joins their circle of friends he is also rapidly falling in love with Sam but has no idea how to tell her just how he feels and to make it even harder she is dating somebody else. Things are still going well though, until another friend invites him to a dance; she takes his acceptance to mean they are now a couple and he can't think of a nice way to say he doesn't feel the same way. Inevitably he eventually does it in the worst possible way and it looks as if he has lost his group of friends. While this is going on we learn that both Sam and Charlie have had troubled pasts and in Charlie's case it appears he isn't over those events.
Growing up in the eighties I enjoyed high school films like 'The Breakfast Club' and found this to be in the same league; indeed it felt as though it could have been made in the late eighties or early nineties and not just because it is set then. The film skilfully captures Charlie's feeling of being alone; indeed the opening scenes are quite painful to watch. Logan Lerman does a fine job as Charlie; the bookish teenager who feels totally alone, Ezra Miller is entertaining as Patrick and Emma Watson is a delight as Sam. Writer/director Stephen Chbosky does a great job bringing his story to the screen although I occasionally wanted a bit more detail. Overall I'd say this is a very enjoyable coming of age film but be warned it does have a few dark moments before we get a happy ending.