Too Cute to Be a Wallflower

Rating: 5/10 (13 February 2013)

This film is full of attractive young actors portraying high school kids, seemingly from affluent families based on their "secret Santa" gifts. Charlie, played by Logan Lerman, is a freshman with a great deal of sadness in his life because he had a favorite aunt, played by Melanie Lynsky, whose life was a tragedy; and a best friend who committed suicide.
In fact, Charlie, while intelligent and loved by his family, seemed to be oddly normal for a kid with such a long history of mental problems, for example, "seeing people." I was confused as to why Charlie's sister, Candace, snubbed Charlie at school knowing how lonely he was, as compared to how loving and concerned she was at home. Also, the relationship between Sam and Patrick was not believable. How likely is it that two step-siblings would be equally quirky, empathetic, the same age, equally fashionable, compatible, and hang out together? Ezra Miller was amazing, and had too little screen time. In fact, I found myself unsympathetic to any of the characters because, other than Charlie and Patrick, all those kids seemed to have a good time all the time. The character of Mary Elizabeth just seemed like a different version of Sam, because the actresses playing those characters favor each other enough to be related.
The script seemed very dis-jointed, as if the writer didn't want to delve too deeply into any one subject. The flashbacks to Aunt Helen were distracting, and the little boy actor who played little Charlie wasn't as cute as the grown up Charlie. The parents all seemed very uninvolved with their kids, and didn't seem to have a purpose. The film did explore the issue of being a gay male teenager and being betrayed by the poser, but only briefly.
It seems like the theme of misfits finding each other has been done before and has been done better. And one lingering question I have is, if Charlie had been in therapy all those years, why did he only remember repressed memories when he entered his first year of high school? and then, why did he race for a kitchen knife the first time he's left alone at home, and if he's that unstable, why wasn't he locked up? It just seems like the writers thought they would just throw mud at a wall and see what sticks, but nothing too deep. And that whole issue about what song was playing as they drove through the tunnel drove me crazy.
Lightly entertaining. Great performances by Ezra Miller and Logan Lerman. Joan Cusack's 3 minutes of screen time was reassuring.