Charlie Bartlett

It’s interesting that on a Saturday afternoon in West Los Angeles “Charlie Bartlett,” an apparent teen movie, would draw such an age-diverse crowd. But that’s what happened; teens to middle agers to olders all came to see this movie. So what’s the draw? Charlie (Anton Yelchin) is a smart, smooth-talking 17-year-old rich kid who is forced to attend public school when he’s expelled from his last private school. Charlie wants to be popular, but he’s enough of an original that he’s typically on the outside looking in. On his first day at school, Charlie is beaten up by the school bully, Murphey Bivens (Tyler Hilton). The psychiatrist Charlie’s mother, Marilyn (Hope Davis), has on call prescribes Ritalin for him and after Charlie spends a few hyper days, he decides to sell the rest of his pills. He enlists Murphey as his partner. Suddenly Dr. Charlie is dispensing advice and pills from his office in the boys’ bathroom. The principal (Robert Downey, Jr.) knows something is up, but he’s not sure what. And to make matters worse, Charlie has a crush on his daughter Susan (Kat Dennings). Yelchin has a very engaging screen presence and Downey, Jr. is quite effective as a father with problems of his own. It’s impossible to label “Charlie Bartlett” because for a while it seems like a satire and then it’s a teen comedy, which veers into drama. But it’s also a message movie and perhaps that’s why so many different people want to see this movie. There’s plenty of serious material under the seemingly superfluous teen fluff. It’s unfortunate, however, that it has an R rating. (2/23/08)