THE PERKS OF BEING A GREAT ADAPTATION

MOVIE REVIEW:

THE PERKS OF BEING A WALLFLOWER

By: G.P. Manalo

Starring:

Logan Lerman

Ezra Miller

Emma Watson

Perks of Being a Wallflower is based on a book with the same name By Stephen Chbosky. It’s about this socially awkward yet damaged kid named, Charlie. He writes these letters to what he call a “friend” and the letters were pretty much written like a diary of his. He enters his high school life being welcomed by a group of seniors who took him under their wing, Sam and her step brother Patrick (and their friends Bob, Mary-Elizabeth and Alice). Throughout the movie it revolves around a year of Charlie being introduced to new things with the help of that certain group of people.

Going into this movie I don’t know what to expect. Before you ask me If I read the book, I’m going to say it… Yes I have read the book before going into this movie. It was recommended by a friend of mine, I read it for a good 5-7 Hours (total), It was a very easy read. I got curious about it because I’ve been hearing a lot about this book being a “Controversy” (which a lot of people made a big deal about).  I read the book twice already and there were tons of dark elements here and there (that again, people made a big deal about) that revolve around what real-life everyday people encounter such as drugs, bullying, family-problems, addictions, relationships, High School, Depression, and more (and when i say more, I mean more stuff). Surprisingly all of those things were crammed together in one book. And I really hate the fact that those were in your face too much as I read in the book it was one of the biggest flaws of the book. It was just too much for me. I didn’t like it as much as she (the one who recommended it to me) did. And now we have this movie and surprisingly I liked it better than the book. 

Here, they corrected all the flaws the book had (to me). The book spends its time emphasizing on so many of these “controversial” things way too much, In fact all these things keep happening and you thought to yourself “Isn’t this a little bit too much”, It never really stayed to the meat of the story and most of the events that they keep giving emphasis on doesn't really help the book progress to real meat of the story. Like I said I liked the book but not as much as 90% of the world. It’s a good read, just not the greatest as everyone else says it is.  Bt it was still very surprising that it’s the same guy who wrote the book that directed, written and produced this movie.  From the trailer it looks like they did tone it down a little bit, but seeing the entirety of this movie it Is toned down, they took out some elements and I’m glad they’re not really “in your face”.

The performances were really great in this movie. When I first heard of the cast, Logan Lerman’s face was in the poster and I just couldn’t stand him since he was in Percy Jackson and Last Year’s Three Musketeers. But in this movie he showed you that he can actually act, I keep using the word Surprised (and surprisingly) but it is what this movie is a “Big Surprise”.  Going back to the cast Yes, Logan Lerman was actually good in this movie. But the one who stood out to me was Ezra Miller as Patrick, and he was definitely the show stealer of this movie. Along with Lerman, I thought his performance was very believable and at some point compelling as well, Lerman and Miller portrayed their characters very well (or maybe even better perhaps). But last but not the least Emma Watson being the exact opposite of Hermione which is a slutty, foul-mouth, rule breaker, Kinda-Smart and sporting an American Accent girl. With two of these actors around her I thought she didn’t stand out as well as I was hoping to be. She was just good not as great, not necessarily saying that she was bad, she’s just not as good as I was hoping her to be. Maybe I put her in this pedestal way too high.  The others they are great as well maybe not as great as Lerman and Miller but rather good.

In the end, Perks of Being a Wallflower is an example that the movie can be better than the source material and Director, Stephen Chbosky, Learned from his mistakes from the book and made an even better version in this movie. The Entire cast did a brilliant job in portraying their characters, it made me (and the audience) feel like i was there with them enjoying their youth (And Paul Rudd being the best English teacher I ever had). There were some small problems editing-wise (Maybe not as awkward as Asiong Salonga or Taken 2). It’s not groundbreaking, but it is a good coming of age film and its only purpose is to tell a story and to entertain us at the same time, It is entertaining, It is mind-boggling at some point. I'm still glad they told the story very well and it stayed very true to the book at the same time. Fans of the book will love this movie (and might even find this movie better than the book as well) and i would highly recommend the non-readers to check this movie out as well(and the book too).

MY RATING:

EPIC WIN! - 5/5