Movie Review – The Perks of Being a Wallflower

Watching a Hollywood movie after a long time and look at what I stumbled on to. It was like a breath of fresh air. And this is what we expect from a movie. The movie deserves credit from the first scene to last. It was so soothing, so subtle and so superb. I don’t think anyone could hate this movie. Charlie says, “So, this is my life. And I want you to know that I am both happy and sad and I’m still trying to figure out how could that be. If my Aunt Helen were still here, I could talk to her. And I know she would understand how I am both happy and sad, and I’m still trying to figure out how could that be,” That’s how I was when I watched the movie. That’s an amazing feeling on a Friday night. After watching films like these you want to walk, walk in the woods alone at night, with your baggy pants and tee, without any money. Not caring about being alone, not caring about being robbed, not caring about what you gonna do the next day. In short… not caring about anything. That’s the feeling this film gave to me.

You’ve seen a million movies opening the way Wallflower does. But no movie has this much meaning to it. When I was watching the opening scene I was like, “oh no, not again a silly coming of age movie.” I know it’s a trend now. No one is happy, everyone wants to quit their job, do something creative but end up only dreaming about it in reality. The ones who tend to do in films do it quite easily, or they show only the positive part. The struggles are too superficial. But I was proven wrong in few minutes when Charlie meets Sam and Patrick. Sam loves songs. How I want my girlfriend to love Raja Sirs songs like I do. They hear a song which they haven’t heard before. Sam loves it and goes to the back of the car to enjoy it, feel it and love it. I totally loved the scene. That’s the repeat of title sequence, only here there are people. A similar scene appears towards the end where Charlie says about how happy he’s at present. That completes the meaning of the scene. The director couldn’t have opened the film better.

The Perks of Being a Wallflower is The Dreamers of present age, with present confused generation sans sex. It doesn’t make you toil like the Dreamers does but it achieves the significance which it has too. If all through you wanted to show some film like Dreamers to your child, this film is the answer to it.

The film has typical scenes of people who have a bad past with drugs violence and stuff. But the way it was weaved around, it was magic. Especially the hash brownie scene where Charlie gets high is a revelation of sorts. Anyone who has done hash would know how it feels. The best part is we see him through the camera. In every other film when a person gets high you start to see the surrounding through his eyes which either ends up being a funny scene or a horrific one. Mostly it’s the former. These achieves its greatness when he tells how he thought he’d never fit in the society and how he’d end up being a no one. I also loved the subtle humor when he checks himself in mirror once he’s high. We all do that, don’t we?

Like how PTA said for Magnolia as a film that blossomed step by step. This film was that for me. It was like a wallflower which blossomed step by step