The Perks of Being a Wallflower — Book is Bad, Movie is Badass!

Why do you watch films?

Every time I see a film, I know that that film has a magical ability to do something visceral — something deeper to me in those 2 hours that perhaps 20 years of life wouldn’t. It almost never happens & often when it feels like it has happened, it turns out to be fleeting. But sometimes it happens for real - it sticks to my soul — like true love. 

There are films —Dark Knight, Fight Club, American History X, Bol— that made all of me quiver, levitate, introspect & rethink life. And then there are films that make the whole of you nostalgic, chuckle, cloudy in the eyes, & feel a tiny bit infinite — The Perks of Being a Wallflower is that kinda film.

This is a perfect film for the Gen-Z even if it’s set in 1991 with no cellphones or social media. It’s perfect for older millennials like me too & anyone, even a 97-year-old geezer as long as they can remember that once she was 15 — once he was 17 and world was a filthy ocean of shameless dreams & you were splashing around like a crazy motherfucker with no panties on.

Before I watched the film, I read the tiny book — 206 pages. It’s the book I gave to my sister when she left for Melbourne 4-odd years ago. That’s the last time I saw her. The book is a breezy read but unexceptional to an authentic reader. When I watched the film —also directed by the author Stephen Chbosky—, it was evident that where the book faltered, the film excelled — all the characters truly come alive on the celluloid. Even the girl with the blink & miss role, who thinks Shakespeare was a novelist [he was a playwright] is memorable. 

 

        

Charlie, 15, the protagonist, is a wallflower —introvert with no friends— with a history of clinical depression, whose best & only friend committed suicide right before the film starts. Things change when he enters high school — he quickly makes friends with Sam & Patrick—who have friends— and also gets along with Mr. Anderson, his English teacher. Sure, he gets beat up at times for being a nerd & gets called a faggot by a girl but his freshman [9^th Grade] year isn’t going too bad.

One of the most beautiful moments in the film comes alive when Charlie, Sam & Patrick are in a car & a song plays on the radio. They don’t know what song is it, but Sam is totally mesmerized by it. She browbeats Patrick to drive through a tunnel & hops in the back of their pickup/car & lets the winds hit all of her with the music blasting away. Charlie glances at her for a long moment — he turns back & settles in his seat & says to Patrick — “I feel infinite.”

That’s all I will tell you of the plot. I know if you really wanted to read the plot, you were better off teleporting to Wizard of Wikipedia. 

Go watch the damn film on Netflix or Torrent it or buy a DVD if you still do that. I don’t know if you’ll love the film. I don’t know who you are & what makes you you. And I will never know. But one thing is for sure, you will find out the song that mesmerized Sam & made Charlie feel infinite. And for all you know, it will make you feel a little infinite too.

P.S. [post scriptum]: Both the book & the film deal with heavy-weight themes like suicide, mental health, autism, social anxieties/exclusion, homophobia, child molestation, drugs, abortion, relationship violence, rape, homosexuality, death, but never truly make any real attempt to delve into any of these real issues. I totally get it why the film doesn’t — a film is, in essence, a reductive medium given the duration limitation. But Stephen Chbosky must have taken time to explore at least half of those themes in-depth & with nuance in the novel. He didn’t. 

I also understand why he didn’t. Because it’s easier not to & it sells more books when you keep the narrative fun, not funeral.