Movie Review: Charlie Bartlett (2008)

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Cliche, stereotypical comedies come to major theaters around two dozen times a year, so what distinguishes Charlie Bartlett from the rest? Absolutely nothing.

Charlie Bartlett is a story about Charlie Bartlett (Anton Yelchin), a prep-school rich kid who so desperately wants to be popular that he'll do anything, regardless of legality, to achieve this popularity. After getting kicked out of the last in a long string of private schools, Charlie's mother (Hope Davis) decides to try Charlie out in public school.

At this new school, Charlie goes through a series of misadventures involving the principal (Robert Downey, Jr.), the principal's daughter (Kat Dennings), and the resident bully (Tyler Hilton). Everything that happens in the movie is unsurprising and follows the most basic "teen comedy" template. The story is derivative, the dialogue is derivative, and Charlie Bartlett has more random, inessential montages this side of an 80's sport flick.

Now, I've seen some bad comedies in the past that've been redeemed by the charisma/acting ability of the principal cast. In Charlie Bartlett, the only one who even approaches believable/entertaining acting is Downey, and even he is not able to muster even half of what he is capable of. Yelchin and Dennings seem to be in a battle through most of the movie to see who can sound more out of place, and in the end I think Dennings wins slightly, but maybe that's because Yelchin is on screen so much that I just got used to his awkwardness and never got used to Dennings'.

However, none of this marks the worst aspect of Charlie Bartlett, which is the inexcusable cover of Cat Stevens' "If You Want to Sing Out, Sing Out." First off, Charlie Bartlett is not even on the same planet as the terrific Harold and Maude. Secondly, Kat Dennings' voice is so ill-equipped for singing that she single-handedly turns a pleasant song into an excruciating three-minutes of warbling.

Although not the absolute worst comedy I have ever seen, Charlie Bartlett is nonetheless a film that leaves me grasping at straws to find positive things to say and is one of the worst comedies to come out in the past few years.

Rating: 2/10