CHARLIE BARTLETT

Jon Poll Written by: Gustin Nash Starring: Anton Yelchin, Robert Downey Jr., Hope Davis,Kat Dennings, Tyler Hilton, Mark Rendall, Dylan Taylor Distributed by Verve Pictures Film is released in the U.K. on May 16th 2008 Review by Michael Edwards

rating: 3

This is a tricky movie to decide where I stand, I have to say. So I'll begin with the description and see if I build some momentum by the end. A high-school drama/coming-of-age comedy, CHARLIE BARTLETT tells the tale of the eponymous child (Anton Yelchin), a rich kid who is thrown out of a string of private schools before ending up in a dirty state school run by the down to earth but also a bit messed up Principal Gardner (Robert Downey Jr) and populated by equally messed up kids. After being sent to a shrink and prescribed ritalin for his zany behaviour, Bartlett has an idea which will finally fulfill his dream of being popular: he'll sell drugs at the school dance. When this goes down a storm he decides he should take it a step further, but at the same time try and be helpful, thus he starts up a psychology practice in the boys toilets, aided and guarded by the school tough kid. Now this isn't a bad premise. Contrived, yes, but also with potential for witty and emotional plot lines and let's face it they're the only kind of plot lines ever likely to appear in high school movies. Unless you want to acknowledge the existence of HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL, in which case you should go and slit your wrists now. Otherwise, read on. The comedy isn't half bad, and Anton Yelchin manages to be a posh kid, slightly neurotic and have his heart in the right places without being more annoying than... well, than HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL. The emotional side of things, the kids with their family issues and the adults with their personal issues are easy to empathise with if slightly too eager too divulge intimate details of their lives to a stranger. Robert Downey Jr helps this side of things with a masterful performance as Principal Gardner, making his overreaction to Bartlett dating his daughter, his inability to cope with the unruly pupils with the school and (less surprisingly) his battle with alcoholism seem perfectly true-to-life with not a whiff of ham to be smelt. Nonetheless the concept falls short in it's grand leap to be everything a high school film should be. The characters are too sensitive and attuned to their own problems for it to be a brilliantly funny satire of farce of those DAZED AND CONFUSED days at school, and they are far too self-aware to have the deep-seated issues needing to be dug out that form the bread and butter of any high school drama. A good effort at both, but it just left me a little unsatisfied at the end.