The Perks of Being a Wallflower

This is an interesting movie that explores that part of our lives that people call "coming of age". It centers on a boy called Charlie (Logan Lerman). He has recently become a freshman  and is feeling anxious because he would like to have friends but no one is interested in becoming Charlie's friend who in turn remains isolated and is being frequently bullied. 
There is little happiness in Charlie's life. His best and only friend committed suicide the year before and the aunt he idolized died in a car accident on Christmas' Eve. Besides an unrevealed childhood trauma comes to haunt him whenever he is depressed. Charlie is going downwards in a spiral but then one day he meets and befriends a couple of senior students, Patrick (Ezra Miller) and his stepsister, Sam (Emma Watson). 
Patrick has no inhibitions and nor does Sam and they are basically great people. They both get to like Charlie and introduce him to their circle of friends. Charlie finally has somebody to hang out with and soon falls in  love with Sam who sadly seems to be sentimentally tied to someone else. Charlie does not have time to be unhappy anymore since he is busy with lots of things to do while he hangs around with his new friends.
Charlie has to deal with his inner demons but he is aided by the fact that he now has friends to count on. Nevertheless, nothing comes without a price and for Charlie nothing is really easy. The plot unfolds slowly but cleverly offering flashbacks so you can discover by yourself before the revelation almost at the end of the movie that explains the reason behind Charlie´s mental problems. Sam and Patrick also have problems of their own and Charlie cannot escape from being emotionally involved with that since they are his only real friends. Sam is charlie's first and only love, the person he would like to spend the rest of his life with and despite her being with another man, Sam is not indiferent to Charlie. 
What happens at the end and the way it happens is part of the fun of watching this movie which is full of very rounded characters, cool music and also photography that conveys a light tone of melancholy. The whole film is in many ways an allegory that brings along a message that could be said it is that even if bad things happen in our lives there are nice people out there, our friends, which exist to give us hope and strenght and only ask in return precisely the same. See the movie and you will also come to understand the caption that accompanies the poster: "We are infinite."
Five stars out of five for this one. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

How do you say MIRADOR in English?

Image
"Hmm, why do I have this nagging feeling that someone is watching me watching?" In Spanish, a MIRADOR is any place that allows a privileged view of the surroundings. In English, a MIRADOR is a VIEWPOINT or a LOOKOUT. Another possible translation is VANTAGE POINT, though in a tourist context this term is a bit less common.
Read more

The Maps of Ship-Trap Island

Image
Once I had my high school students read The Most Dangerous Game, a short story by Richard Connell. Rainsford, the main character, is a professional hunter traveling by ship to his next hunting area, accidentally ends up in an island called Ship- Trap island. When he goes into the island he finds there are two men living in a palace in the island. One of them is a Cossack general and the other, his brutish servant.  The Cossack is called general Zaroff who is also  a game hunter but has become bored of hunting regular game and now uses the island's unique position to capture sailors from shipwrecks. He lets them go first and next after some time he hunts them down. Rainford's arrival who is worldwide famous presents Zaroff with a rare opportunity to find excitement in hunting again by hunting another hunter. Little does Zaroff know that Rainsford is The Most Dangerous Game in the World and hunting him will not be easy at all. My students enjoyed themselves at reading
Read more

How do you say EXAMEN SUPLETORIO in English?

Image
Darn! I wonder if there's a Make Up exam for this Make up exam! I remember that long ago I asked my distinguished and knowledgeable colleagues of that time to enlighten me and tell me the right English word for what we know in Ecuador as EXAMEN SUPLETORIO or EXAMEN DE RECUPERACION.  After hearing Recovery exam or Supplemenary test and even Supletory exam, I was not convinced so I decided to go to a higher authority and looked up one of those encyclopedic dictionaries from Oxford or Cambridge university (these were the pre-browser times) and found the right expression is MAKE UP EXAM which is taken when an exam has been missed or when a student needs to change one score with a more favorable one. The British say RECUPERATION EXAM which is perhaps more practical since to some people the term Make Up is confusing. Make-up is the word for the wearing of cosmetics. There are Make-up tests which are oriented to future Make-up artists.
Read more