perks of being a wallflower

movies:  The Perks Of Being A Wallflower is a movie based on the book by Stephen Chbosky.  It is the story of high school freshman named Charlie trying to find his way in high school where he doesn't exactly fit.  It begins with Charlie, played by Logan Lerman, entering high school for the first time while he narrates to the viewer how many days are left; days he is clearly not looking forward to.  From that point the movie becomes the coming of age story of what we find out is very troubled young man.
As Charlie meanders his way through the first few days of school in loneliness and quiet, we find out that despite the fact that he sits all alone in the lunch room and that he refuses to show his intelligence by answering obscure questions in his English class for extra credit, he appears to be more than just a loner.  He possesses a drive and intelligence that makes good on his being alone as he reads his Lit assignments and even endears himself to his teach who pushes him by lending him books to read and write about in what is surely an extra credit arrangement but is presented as pure enjoyment for Charlie.
Then Charlie meets his new friends, stepbrother and sister Patrick and Sam.  They view themselves as outcasts, this being a sentiment that Charlie can understand.  As upperclassmen they take Charlie under their wings and introduce him to the world of high school outcast and show him a world in which he might belong.  And that story of finding oneself is what the movie is about.
Through the course of Charlie's story we find out that he is not just a quiet young man not doing good on his potential, but someone possessing a truly damaging past.  His past being one in which his aunt, who he was very close with died in a car accident that Charlie is carrying around a sense of respsonsiblity for that is so damaging he is prone to act out if not in a controlled situation.  As Charlie loses himself in the Patrick and Sam's world he finds himself more and more out of control and finding it harder to control his uncontrollable emotions.
The story at its core is this coming of age of Charlie as he learns to manage his troubled past, but the story at its strongest is the moments between Sam, Charlie, and Patrick.  Charlie and Patrick develop a wonderful friendship that is heartfelt and genuine as the two ebb and flow in and out of personal problems that force each other to deal with the highs and lows of each others lives.  And the timing is always good with them not being mirrors of each other but opposites, thus making it harder to relate but showing that true friends can do so.  The relationship of Sam and Charlie, though, is what really drives the story.  As the story progresses, Sam and Charlie develop a friendship that turns into love.  And that love for Charlie is his first and thus very powerful, and despite Sam's many past relationships maybe her first feeling of love as well.  Watching those two dance around each other as they uncover each others checkered pasts while not knowing how to manage their feelings is the most exciting and emotional parts of the movie and ultimately what makes the movie enjoyable to watch.
The movie is not without flaws however.  Chbosky, who also chose to write and direct the movie based on his book had trouble inter-cutting the flashbacks of Charlie's aunt's death in a way that really made sense until the end when Charlie himself explains what we were seeing.  The beginning of the movie also suffered from some weird thing where the characters, particularly Sam, Charlie, and Patrick in their first meeting don't speak at all in a conversational way but rather in one lined affirmations of the romanticist notion of outcastdom that were made for movie trailers by having moments where Emma Watson stares right into the camera and says "Welcome to the island of misfit toys" or Charlie stares off into space in his first moment of happiness in the movie and proclaims "I feel infinite."  Not even in the most dramatic of teen universes do kids talk like that.
But in the end the movie hits its beats delivers completely, mostly through the story of Charlie and Sam.  Their relationship is so exciting to watch throughout the movie as these two find a real love between the two of them that never really gets actualized.  Sam being damaged by past relationships is not willing to be with someone she really cares about and Charlie is just so afraid of everything; his past, his instability, being a freshman.  And that notion, even if not in high school, is the one that is most easy to relate to.  Looking into someone's eyes and knowing that you know them better than anyone but lacking the confidence to make the bold move and knowing that they are going to chase love in other places just to fill the void that could best be filled by you.  But that's what happens sometimes.  People don't always get the love they do deserve, they accept the love they think they deserve.  And in the case of our two main characters, they ultimately get the latter.  For Charlie that is a fleeting glimpse and for Sam that is the wrong one all the time, well besides that previously metioned fleeting glimpse.