Charlie Bartlett

Certificate: R Directer: Jon Poll Cast: Anton Yelchin, Kat Dennings, Hope Davis and
Robert Downey Jr Distributor: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer  Running Time: 97 mins

Charlie (Anton Yelchin) is the typical high school student who just wants to be accepted by the kids at school, when we first meet him he has just been expelled from school for making and selling fake Id's in his room, we find out that he comes from a very rich family after his mum (Hope Davis) tries to buy his way back into the school and when she asks him why he was making the Id's his reply was that he wanted to be accepted, that he wanted to be happy and popular and that was the point of high school, to be accepted. The suggestion that Charlie should move home and attend public school is brought forward. We see Charlie and his mum sat at the piano and he is reminding her that she needs to take her meds and that normal kids don't show up to school with a chauffeur and that he should take the bus.

We cut to Robert Downey Jr entering his house and we meet his Daughter Susan (Kat Dennings) who calls her dad the Principle and he has a difficult relationship with his ex wife when he is sat at his desk drinking whiskey and he cuts off the voice message from her and then we see him driving a toy boat around his pool drinking whiskey.

When Charlie starts school he gets on the bus and gets some strange looks because he is dressed in a suit and has a brief case, he gets mistaken for a teacher by Susan because of the way he is dressed and when he goes into the bathroom he interrupts the school "bad boy" Murphy (Tyler Hilton) and gets his head stuffed down the toilet, so school doesn't start very well for Charlie he is an outcast because he is new and dresses weird compared to the other students. Charlie auditions for the school play which is quite funny so i don't want to give any spoilers for that, and when he gets beaten up by the school bullies his mums response is the call in the shrink. The shrink solution is to put him on some meds.

After some interesting side affects to taking the new meds ( if you have ever watched The Big Bang Theory its similar to when Sheldon drinks coffee and dresses like the Flash) he realizes that he can sell the Ritalin with the help of Murphy at the school dance and make a load of money and  lets just say there are some funny side affects. A kid at school comes up to Charlie to get some drugs because of Charlies connections when Charlie can't help him he finds a way by trying to find the right drug to give him and goes to the Shrink relaying the information and symptoms that Kit told Charlie to get the drugs to help him and gets the drugs. Charlie becomes the new school shrink with kids coming up to him in his "office" for advice and drugs with the help of Murphy. Along with Charlies drug/psychiatric business doing well his relationship with Susan is also developing much to her dads disapproval (he also has a drinking problem).

One of the kids that Charlie tried to help Kit, tries to kill himself by taking a load of sedatives, which leads to a confrontation between Charlie and Nathan about him selling drugs. Charlie tries to make it up to Kit by helping him with the play that he wrote onto the stage and he tries to get Murphy to go on a date with a girl he really likes. A protest breaks out over cameras being installed in the school and the principle is placing the blame on Charlie even though he isn't a part of the protest because he doesn't want to be expelled again. Things come head to head with the principle over Susan after Nathan jumps to the wrong conclusions, Charlie gets arrested, students riot in protest and another confrontation between Nathan and charlie occurs this time with a gun, that is where i am going to leave it, you will have to watch it to see what happens at the end.

The films is great, it shows the life of a high school student that will do anything to fit on, even if it is illegal and how he deals with social pressures a lot of the time films like this are done from more of a female perspective so its nice to see something different. Anton Yelchin is brilliant in the role of Charlie and there are some great moments especially between Charlie and his mum, who Charlie is clearly the adult in the family as he looks after his mother because his father isn't around. I love Robert Downey Jr and he doesn't disappoint in the film he is just brilliant especially in the scenes he shares with Yelchin and Kat Dennings (who is great in the film) . This is defiantly a film to watch.

Rating: 8/10