ShareThisIn the tradition of "Ferris Bueller's Day Off," "Charlie Bartlett" finds the essence of cool in someone who really isn't."Charlie Bartlett" mines the overworked high-school milieu and finds humor and wisdom where many others have failed. It's aided largely by the performance of Anton Yelchin ("Alpha Dog") as Charlie, a teen from a wealthy family who's managed to get himself kicked out of a host of elite private schools.Charlie's seemingly ditzy mother, Marilyn (Hope Davis), decides to bring Charlie home to live, with public school his court of last resort. Charlie declines the limo and rides the bus to school on his first day, fitting in about as well as a giraffe among penguins.Charlie is a friendly sort who merely wants to be accepted by his peers. He's immediately ostracized by the in crowd and becomes the target of bully Murphy (Tyler Hilton).But after Charlie starts sessions with his family's on-call psychiatrist, he finds his own niche in school. He gets the acceptance he's craved and finds a girlfriend, Susan (Kat Dennings), to boot.Susan comes with her own baggage. Her father is Principal Gardner (Robert Downey Jr.), a once-caring history teacher whose promotion and divorce have disillusioned him. Charlie won't talk about his own father, who is out of the picture.Directed by Jon Poll from a screenplay by Gustin Nash, "Charlie Bartlett" shares insights without being didactic. Teens don't change that much from one generation to the next; it's just that former teens, especially parents, tend to forget their own early years and the accompanying problems.Being liked or popular, or even just being noticed, is crucial to self-esteem and survival. And sometimes all it takes is someone to listen.Yelchin is nothing like Matthew Broderick in "Ferris Bueller," yet he's convincing as someone who has a great influence on people in a quiet way. Dennings plays Susan as a teen who is just as much of an adult as Charlie is.Davis is marvelous as Marilyn, and Downey, despite some apparent ironies, is solid as the authority figure.Compared with other movies that focus on the dark side of the teen-age years, "Charlie Bartlett" is a hopeful sign.Rated R for language, drug content and brief nudity.Four stars (out of five).(Contact Betsy Pickle of The Knoxville News Sentinel in Tennessee at www.knoxnews.com.)
'Charlie Bartlett' mines gold in overworked high-school milieu
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