Spring Break
Student advises peers in comedic teen movie
Lisa Boone-Arellano
Issue date: 2/29/08 Section: ARTS & LIFE
Charlie Bartlett, played by Anton Yelchin, has one goal for his high school career - to be well-liked. He has been kicked out of every local private school for creating fake ID's and other money-making, or friend-making, schemes.
After his latest expulsion, Bartlett's lovingly inept but wealthy mother, played by Hope Davis, enrolls him in the local public high school. Here he realizes that his search for self-discovery and acceptance is just a bathroom stall away as he sets up a psychiatric practice for fellow students who live angst-filled days too and have nowhere else to turn.
In his directorial debut, John Poll, film editor for the "Meet the Parents" films and the "Austin Powers" series, gives us a fresh and humorous take on the ills of teenage society and the need to fit in.
Yelchin carries the film with his comedic timing and wit. After the school bully Murphey Bivens, played by Tyler Hilton, uses Bartlett's head to clean the toilet bowl, Bartlett's mother sends him to their "on call" family psychiatrist who prescribes Ritalin to find out if Bartlett has ADD.
Yelchin's hilarious subsequent scenes, edited to mimic the sporadic Ritalin influence, become the springboard for Bartlett's next money-making and friend-making scheme.
Bartlett approaches his bully Bivens in a scene we all wish we could re-create just once that includes a chauffeur, a limousine, a black suit and a henchman.
The duo soon embarks upon an unlikely business partnership, and they set up their psychiatric office in the boy's bathroom turned pharmacy, using the bathroom stalls as counseling confessionals.
Bartlett inspires his fellow students and soon becomes well-liked. But Principal Gardner, played by Robert Downey, Jr., the unhappy, alcoholic father of Bartlett's new love Susan, is suspicious of the operation.
Throw in the school board's plan to install security cameras in the student lounge, and an overwhelming sequence of events sets everyone on their journey for self-discovery.
Bartlett and Susan discover their parents are not so different, Bivens recognizes what he really wants in life and Principal Gardner and Charlie's mother find themselves standing in new shoes.
"Charlie Bartlett" first threatens to be just another high school comedy but soon calls for a deeper study of ourselves, our need to fit in and our quest for happiness.
Yelchin exhibits a creative chemistry with each of his costars as he balances his child versus adult role with the ease of an acting veteran.
Downey, Jr. and Davis, the token "adults" in the film, are both outstanding as usual, and their characters reveal that, no matter what age, all we want is for someone to take care of us so we won't have to be alone.
After his latest expulsion, Bartlett's lovingly inept but wealthy mother, played by Hope Davis, enrolls him in the local public high school. Here he realizes that his search for self-discovery and acceptance is just a bathroom stall away as he sets up a psychiatric practice for fellow students who live angst-filled days too and have nowhere else to turn.
In his directorial debut, John Poll, film editor for the "Meet the Parents" films and the "Austin Powers" series, gives us a fresh and humorous take on the ills of teenage society and the need to fit in.
Yelchin carries the film with his comedic timing and wit. After the school bully Murphey Bivens, played by Tyler Hilton, uses Bartlett's head to clean the toilet bowl, Bartlett's mother sends him to their "on call" family psychiatrist who prescribes Ritalin to find out if Bartlett has ADD.
Yelchin's hilarious subsequent scenes, edited to mimic the sporadic Ritalin influence, become the springboard for Bartlett's next money-making and friend-making scheme.
Bartlett approaches his bully Bivens in a scene we all wish we could re-create just once that includes a chauffeur, a limousine, a black suit and a henchman.
The duo soon embarks upon an unlikely business partnership, and they set up their psychiatric office in the boy's bathroom turned pharmacy, using the bathroom stalls as counseling confessionals.
Bartlett inspires his fellow students and soon becomes well-liked. But Principal Gardner, played by Robert Downey, Jr., the unhappy, alcoholic father of Bartlett's new love Susan, is suspicious of the operation.
Throw in the school board's plan to install security cameras in the student lounge, and an overwhelming sequence of events sets everyone on their journey for self-discovery.
Bartlett and Susan discover their parents are not so different, Bivens recognizes what he really wants in life and Principal Gardner and Charlie's mother find themselves standing in new shoes.
"Charlie Bartlett" first threatens to be just another high school comedy but soon calls for a deeper study of ourselves, our need to fit in and our quest for happiness.
Yelchin exhibits a creative chemistry with each of his costars as he balances his child versus adult role with the ease of an acting veteran.
Downey, Jr. and Davis, the token "adults" in the film, are both outstanding as usual, and their characters reveal that, no matter what age, all we want is for someone to take care of us so we won't have to be alone.
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