People Like You...

...Are the reason people like ME need medication.

So says Charlie Bartlett's fave shirt in the movie that's named for him.

I went to go see it last night.

Overall, I'd give it 3 out of 5 stars.

It took me awhile to warm up to Charlie, a figure who (according to critical consensus) you have to either love or hate. I think the main reason I didn't like him at first was because some critics were calling him the "new Ferris Bueller".... I mean..... HOW can ANYONE be the NEW Ferris Bueller??

Fact is, this movie is nothing like Ferris Buller's Day Off.

The general plot goes that Charlie is basically a spoiled-rich (literally) kid who is treated like an adult by his mother ever since his father left. As such, he gets a lot of great responsibilities, but sometimes he bites off more than he can chew. Because of this, he gets into A LOT of trouble at the schools he's been too. He's been kicked out of a bunch of private schools and lands himself at the local public high school, where Hollywood conveniently turns back all the great work done in The Breakfast Club and High School Musical and decides that everyone is in separate social groups and thinks everyone not in their social group is weird. Charlie even gets the proverbial head-dunk-in-the-toilet by one of the bullies. Original, this is not.

Eventually, Charlie is "diagnosed" with ADD (go see the movie to find out why this is in quotes) and is prescribed Ritalin, which he subsequently ends up getting high on. After an "incident" because of this, he stops taking Ritalin, and starts helping other kids in school by setting up an "office" in the Boys' Bathroom, listening to their problems, and "prescribes" them medication. He gets this medication by going to his psychiatrist and listing the symptoms his patients have to get the meds they need.

That's as far as I'll go with plot summary.

As far as the movie itself goes, the acting is very well-done for the most part. One of the main issues I take with this movie is that, like Charlie, it doesn't really know what it should be yet. There are at LEAST three different main plotlines in the movie, each getting resolution at a different time. The diverging stories sometimes make it hard to keep track of what exactly's going on, especially when they have huge twists and turns. The point of the story goes from "I want to matter to someone someday," to "I want to matter to someone now," to "I'm just a kid and I can't handle mattering to anyone right now."

Watching it made me feel like I needed a bit of Ritalin.

Overall, though, the movie was an enjoyable, just-long-enough hour-and-a-half of time well-spent. I recommend seeing it.

<3sprinkles