Review of Diary of a Wimpy Kid (2010) by Rachel H — 12 Feb 2011

I wanted to watch this movie because I read the first two books and thought they were pretty good. The movie was also okay, but the critics consensus was right. The movie failed to place a likeable protagonist at the centre of its middle-school based humour, thus drowning out the essential message. In fact, none of the characters are particularly likeable in this film except Angie and Rodrick, and that's just because Rodrick and Angie both remind me something of myself. Greg, the main character is an asshole and I am incapable of feeling sorry for him or enjoying him as a character.

Greg is however the main character and the film is about him and his obsession about being popular and delusions that he himself is also cool and will be an instant hit amongst everybody. His brother Rodrick tells him to lie low but thinks its hopeless, that he'll either be dead or homeschooled by the end of the year anyway. The movie is essentially about Greg's up-and-down year in middle school with his best friend Rowley, who Greg isn't particularly nice to but Rowley keeps being friends with because he's a stupid f*ck. For that matter, Greg is too. There's also Greg's parents and brothers, who don't seem to like him all that much and seem to treat his younger brother Manny like a king and his older brother Rodrick like a...well... a teenager (that is until Mrs. Heffley discovers one of Rodrick's hustler magazines and he gets grounded). I liked the books, but that was because Jeff Kinney is a good writer. However, his books don't make an easy transition to the big screen and I was left just feeling kind of empty because in actuality, Greg's middle school life is not that interesting, and he is an asshole who deserved everything he got.

In fact, Rodrick was my favourite character in the books and Devon Bostick was the only really good performance in the movie. But I'll get to that later. There's also this sort of omniscient character named Angie played by Chloe Moretz that I also like because she and Rodrick are essentially a combination of some of my less desirable personality traits. That plus Gideon from Scott Pilgrim. Devon Bostick and Chloe Moretz give the only good performances in a sea of forgettable ones. That being said, Zachary Gordon is not a very good actor and the parents were just okay. Not godawful but not good either.

In fact, that's just the movie. Not godawful, but forgettable. I don't really have much else to say about it seeing as it will fade from my memory soon enough. I suppose this movie isn't awful, and there were some things I enjoyed about it, just not enough to make a good movie. The lack of a likeable protagonist and a mediocre script just made for this mediocre movie. All in all, its good for the kids, but not really for anyone else. Don't worry, it won't be remembered soon enough and maybe the sequel will be a bit better because of more Rodrick.