I was
resistant to go see The Perks of Being a Wallflower because I had heard that
this was a “teen” movie that was closer to John Hughes’s films than, say, a
movie tht would have starred Freddie Prinze, Jr. And, because of that analogy, I was afraid
that Perks would not live up to my expectations of what is a John Hughes
movie. The best teen—with a capital T—movie
is Sixteen Candles because the characters are so uncomfortable and shallow—yet,
sensitive—that I not only believe they are real, but I relate to them. Flawed.
Sensitive. Whole, even when
broken.
So, what was
I afraid of with this comparison? I
thought that the grittiness of high school would be stripped away. I thought that Perks would glorify being an
outsider too much. It’s interesting to
be different, but it’s still really, really hard.
I’ll take
myself as an example for a reference.
Was it interesting that I wore long skirts with clunky boots, could
sing (and did!) the entire soundtrack to Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor
Dream Coat, and had a fat friend that a cheerleader would not talk to if her life depended on it? Yes, I guess, but it’s not
so easy to be a teenager and have interest in activities or music that is
unique to every other teenager in your school.
And, it is also a lie that an “outsider” finds a clique of friends that
completely understands him or her and also loves Donny Osmond. So, I was afraid that in Perks, the misfit
protagonist would somehow be embraced by friends and all would be right with
his world. As an outsider myself, I did
not want that type of story to be told.
Moreover, I did not want people to think that is what a John Hughes
movie is. Yes, mostly in his movies,
girl gets boy, but there are nuances in the plots that feel real. So, I always
forgive myself for rooting for the ending kiss because even if in real life, a
first date with your crush rarely happens at all—let alone a kiss—is nice to
see that it could happen.
Perks has
the same kind of Hughes-ian quality. No
one is perfect in the movie, but it is fair to say that everyone is perfectly
flawed. There is a bit of Getting The
Girl in the movie, but it feels earned and nothing is sealed with a kiss. The actions all have consequences, and none
of the characters are immune to them.
Perks is a
story about Charlie just as he begins his freshman year of high school. He’s lonely.
He meets some friends that seem to like him for who he is. The good part is that he never seems to be
not lonely. The friends do not fix his
life; they do change it, though. The
only problem I had was with a right turn the movie takes about 15 minutes from
the end. I did not read the book, so I
do not know if this ending comes out of the clear blue sky as it did in the
movie. I don’t want to give anything
away, but I will say that the story felt better to me when Charlie was sad and
depressed just because he was—and not due to some outside reason that
blindsided me and attempted to tie up the ends of the story that did not need
to be tied at all. Not everything looks
better wrapped in a bow.
