Charlie Bartlett : Widescreen Edition

• Widescreen

The kids at Western Summit High have "issues," and newcomer Charlie Bartlett is coming to their rescue. With a briefcase full of prescription pills and a head full of pop psychology, this rebel with a cause brings hilarious help to the student body and unending grief to their neurotic principal, Mr. Gardner (Robert Downey, Jr.). Suddenly, Charlie is the hottest man on campus and he's even caught the eye of Gardner's sultry daughter. An outrageous send-up of today's Prozac generation, Charlie Bartlett has your prescription for laugh-out-loud insanity!The ghost of Ferris Bueller haunts Charlie Bartlett. In John Hughes' classic comedy, a wily principal chases a clever student all over Chicago. In editor-turned-director Jon Poll's darker-hued enterprise, the hero of the title (Huff's preternaturally poised Anton Yelchin) gets kicked out of private school for selling fake IDs, so! his heavily-medicated mother (a reliably excellent Hope Davis) transfers her son to a public institution. Looking like a junior stockbroker in navy blazer and attaché case, he turns into a bully piñata, until he joins forces with surly dealer Murphey (Walk the Line’s Tyler Hilton) to sell prescription medication and split the profits (Charlie secures the meds from an assortment of pill-pushing psychiatrists). By listening to their problems and offering well-researched advice, the unlicensed doc becomes the most popular kid on campus. He even captures the interest of self-possessed drama queen Susan (The 40-Year-Old Virgin’s Kat Dennings), daughter of booze-soaked Principal Gardner (Robert Downey Jr. in top form). Gardner doesn't trust Charlie, but lacks the evidence to confirm his suspicions--so he sets out to secure some. Once he installs surveillance cameras, the game is on. By the end, the two competitors will have both lost... and won. Aside from Ferris Bueller's Day Off, Charlie Bartlett recalls! Wes And erson's Rushmore, except Poll's Gustin Nash-penned satire trades counter-cultural cool for trenchant commentary about quick-fix solutions to deep-seated dilemmas. That means fewer laughs than its forerunners, but Charlie Bartlett presents a more penetrating analysis of today’s generation gap. --Kathleen C. Fennessy

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