The Perks of Being a Wallflower

Watch out for Logan Lerman. If his work in THE PERKS OF BEING A WALLFLOWER is any indication, he's that rare young actor who can carry the weight of complex emotions without reducing them to tics that are too often the actorly shorthand for teenage alienation. As Charlie, Lerman is fantastic and sympathetic -- key for a film of this make. We believe his diffidence, we understand his fear. The same can be said (to a slightly lesser extent) for both Watson, who's passionate and forceful as Sam in a way that she wasn't -- or couldn't be -- as Hermione Granger, and Miller, who has made a cottage industry out of playing vulnerable, eccentric characters (which is admirable, but it would be great to see what he could do playing a quieter role).

Author Stephen Chbosky directed this adaptation of his book, and the movie bears the imprint of his careful hands. But it feels strangely modern for a story set in the early 1990s (the cultural references say as much), and Charlie's stunning revelation in the end is hurried, and so doesn't stun as much as it should. The parents, too, feel like afterthoughts, confusing given the caliber of actors playing them (Dylan McDermott, for one). But on the whole, The Perks of Being a Wallflower is a gem, and certainly not a wallflower to ignore.