Charlie Bartlett is an intelligent kid with the ambition to be popular, with a dream to stand up on stage while his peers cheer for him, a dream he’ll do almost anything to obtain. Hence forth, Charlie is thrown out of every prestigious private school, most recently for counterfeiting driver’s licenses and selling them to the students. Now left without private schools as options, Charlie must attend public school. Charlie befriends the gentle giant, falls for the thespian girl, Susan Gardner, and finds his head in a toilet as well as obtaining a black eye from the school bully, Murphey, all within the same day. The black eye causes his mother to send Charlie to the on call family psychiatrist and when the psychiatrist hears about the dream constantly on Charlie’s mind he decides to place Charlie on Ritalin to test for ADD.
Soon Charlie becomes the school “psychiatrist” having recruited Murphey as his business partner to diagnose students and sell them drugs that Charlie obtains from his psychiatrist by claiming other students problems as his own. He sets up an “office” in the boy’s restroom, using two stalls set up much like a confessional booth. Charlie’s popularity begins to rise to the position that it’s impossible not to hear about Charlie Bartlett and he finds himself hooking up with Susan Gardner. There’s only one problem. Charlie doesn’t know that Susan’s father is the principle . . . and he’s not about to let Charlie date his daughter.
On the outside Charlie may come across as problem free but as the film moves on we find that Charlie has just as many problems as the other teens. But he doesn’t admit to his problems, instead turning to listening to the issues of other students. Charlie is also different because he’s from a wealthy background. He’s the all around optimist that’s always there for the other students.
In Charlie’s eyes there is nothing more important than being popular. After all, isn’t that what high school is about? But Charlie begins to find out who he is as the story progresses and when he finally gets a chance to give the speech he’s always dreamed about he tells everyone to just be themselves, not to try and fit in.
The film is much less a comedy as it is a “dramedy”. The stereotypes are played up in the film but for effect in sending certain messages. Some might argue Charlie Bartlett is the R-rated version of Ferris Bueller, which in character relation I could see, but ultimately this film is a story about high school, finding acceptance, discovering who you are, and being yourself. If you go to the film with more than laughs in mind, since you probably won’t find many anyway, you might find some important life messages embedded within this teenage angst filled story.
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