Review of The Perks of Being a Wallflower (2012) by Edgar C — 20 Apr 2014

"We can't choose where we come from, but we can choose where we go from there.".

Based on the best-selling novel of Stephen Chbosky, who also made the peculiar decision to direct his own vision, The Perks of Being a Wallflower treats with delicacy and freshness the ups and downs, challenges, personal tragedies and the accomodation of life priorities in that unique life stage called "coming-of-age" with strong performances by a young cast that adequately personifies the main ideas that the novel attempts to transmit.

A blast-from-the-past soundtrack reminds the audience of the good old days of the 80s, were the coming-of-age transition of adolescents acquired a particularly strong change in tone compared to their past generations, given a pervasively increasing pop-culture filtering through the masses, an increased access to information, and the scandalous generation to which their parents belonged to, considering the anarchic and somewhat misguided liberalism of the 60s.

Despite being nothing special, and miles away from the degree of character analysis and unique humor that John Hughes would be capable of employing three decades before - especially considering the uneven change in tones that the film acquires in the last 20 minutes, one of them including a John-Hughes-like style - the film plays by the book (heh) and can be sufficiently recommended for people looking for an experience that, despite having being told countless times before and having a lack of passion towards the treatment of the multiple subjects it deals with, has messages that resonate today and that can be applied to modern youth, although in limited areas given the film's thematic scope. For me, the most important fibers that the film correctly tackles are two:

1) How, with each passing generations, adolescents are forced to face more mature real-life facts at a sooner age, modifying their scope about their roles as human beings. This is summarized with the opening quote of this review. And at least the basics of a recycled plot like this one is properly delivered by this adaptation: likeable characters, character variety, situations not so far from the truth, and the lack of adulthood/parental closeness.

2) How certain memory remnants about our life background can have repercussions in the present day, triggering certain psychological reactions in us, which have the power either to destroy us, or to help us discover more about ourselves.

The divisive hate against this film is very unjustified. Not a single review I have read so far has given solid arguments for defending their hate convincingly.

65/100.