Review of Charlie Bartlett (2008) by Marianela A — 24 Apr 2009

The filmmakers behind this clearly wanted to make another Rushmore, lets get that out of the way first. The smarmy kid getting kicked out of private school and going to public school, an adult having a competition with the kid over a female's love (this time it's a principal and his daughter...still comparable), even the play at the end in which the bully has a role, and so on. It's all one big homage or complete rip off of Wes Anderson's piece. The only problem is that they took all the good ideas from Rushmore and just put them into a generic and stereotypical high school movie.

Bullies give swirlies, people cheer on the zero to hero in the halls, Bartlett has a huge emotional speech on the end, etc. And though I believe there are several sections of the film that had potential (especially the protesting of turning the school into a prison), they are stunted by the cliche's seen throughout.

I will say this, Anton Yelchin has a certain charm about him as Charlie Bartlett and Robert Downey Jr. is as good as ever. If they would have given Kat Dennings more to play with, I would have liked her character more (I really enjoy Kat), but it's serviceable.

Overall, not terrible, but not original in the slightest.