A very interesting juvenile drama

Rating: 8/10 (29 November 2012)

In this century, there has been a fracture in the juvenile cinema, dividing it into two different cinematographic styles: on the one hand, we have cheap vulgar comedies made straight-to-DVD, dedicated to the classic "teenagers looking for sex" formula. And, on the other hand, we have "indie" melodramas which take the emotional turbulence provoked by the end of childhood and the beginning of adult age seriously (such as It's Kind of a Funny Story and The Art of Getting By). I personally prefer the juvenile films from the '80s and '90s, in which both aspects were combined (Weird Science, Clueless); but anyway...if I have to decide, I definitely prefer the "indie" side because those movies tend to be better written, acted and directed. What takes me to The Perks of Being a Wallflower, a very good juvenile drama which offers us realistic characters trapped into an internal and external fight expressed with honesty and a solid emotional impact.
It's risky to let a novelist write the screenplay and direct the film based on his novel, but in the case of The Perks of Being a Wallflower, novelist/screenwriter/director Stephen Chbosky made a good work in every aspect, starting by the selection of actors. I hadn't swallowed Logan Lerman in some previous occasions (The Three Musketeers -2011-, Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief), but his work in The Perks of Being a Wallflower is extraordinary, carefully modulating his character's multiple facets in order not to make him look like a stereotype; what takes me to one of biggest pros of the film (and from the novel, I guess): the characters are complex and possess an own voice, rejecting the habitual labels of the genre, and as a consequence, we won't find the typical villain sportsman, virginal girlfriend, "mean girls" or buffoon friends.
Ezra Miller brings an excellent performance as a sensitive and very friendly young man despite not fitting into the obligatory school niches, while Emma Watson brings a perfect melancholic sensibility to her character. Nina Dobrev is totally credible as the main character's older sister, occupied into her romantic drama but still vigilant over her younger brother; despite having few scenes together, Lerman and Dobrev perfectly evoke the fraternal love/irritation dynamic. The adult characters are a bit generically written (starting by the anonymous paternal figures who only exist as a complement of the domestic environment), but I liked the performances from Paul Rudd and Melanie Lynskey.
Nevertheless, the best element of The Perks of Being a Wallflower is the screenplay, unpredictable enough in order to keep our attention, but respecting the "coming of age" structure which invites us to revive that complicated period in human life. On the negative side, I would mention the last 10 or 15 minutes, when the drama is suddenly incremented in order to bring us a dose of forced psychological conflict which wasn't necessary to complement the well raised narrative. Some people are saying that The Perks of Being a Wallflower is "21st century's The Breakfast Club", and even though I wouldn't agree on that, I appreciated its ability to portray the transition to maturity on a credible way, examining the fears and insecurity of getting into that unknown territory. In summary, I liked this movie pretty much and I consider it worthy of a recommendation, but I wouldn't put it into my "hall of fame" of juvenile cinema.