As a high school movie Charlie Bartlett is great. In the best movies, high school is never portrayed realistically, because it would be way too boring. High schools in movies are always way more colourful and have many big events during quite a short while. Stuff happens faster. It makes you kind of nostalgic for high school, while knowing it never was like that. But it's always fun to see typical sub-culture people like punks and goths and jocks and such, while the cliques might not have been so clear in your school.
Charlie Bartlett is both funny and sad. It's funny, because there definitely is humour there, even though it might be quite dark sometimes. Meanwhile it's also sad to see all these kids with their problems and seeing how little help they get - before Charlie shows up, of course.
However no matter how fun Charlie Bartlett might be, it feels also a bit boring. At least it's kind of a dull way to get all these deep, meaningful messages out. They get drowned in dialogue which isn't always that intriguing. There are several intense scenes that catch your attention though, but they are here and there and it's easy to not focus.
Charlie Bartlett is a good high school movie, but when it comes to movies in general, it's just decent. Most of it charms comes from Anton Yelchin, who was a talented, very present young actor. His performance alone makes this movie worth watching, however it doesn't quite reach my expectations.
Charlie Bartlett is both funny and sad. It's funny, because there definitely is humour there, even though it might be quite dark sometimes. Meanwhile it's also sad to see all these kids with their problems and seeing how little help they get - before Charlie shows up, of course.
However no matter how fun Charlie Bartlett might be, it feels also a bit boring. At least it's kind of a dull way to get all these deep, meaningful messages out. They get drowned in dialogue which isn't always that intriguing. There are several intense scenes that catch your attention though, but they are here and there and it's easy to not focus.
Charlie Bartlett is a good high school movie, but when it comes to movies in general, it's just decent. Most of it charms comes from Anton Yelchin, who was a talented, very present young actor. His performance alone makes this movie worth watching, however it doesn't quite reach my expectations.