The Perks of being a Wallflower: We are Infinite

The Perks of being a Wallflower is a coming of age movie directed by Stephen Chbosky and released in 2012. This movie is told from Charlie Kelmeckis's (Logan Lerman) point of view, the titular “wallflower”. Like a wallflower, he is introvert and often being excluded in a party. As a result, he doesn't have any friends in high school. He also just recovered from depression because his friend shot himself (suicide). That's why he is very shy and quite ‘different’ than other people in high school. Fortunately, he is in the same class with Patrick (Ezra Miller), his senior who repeats the class because doesn't have a high score, and befriend with him. His life change because of that. Charlie also met Sam (Emma Watson), Patrick's step-sibling, and fall in love with her. They start to hang out together with their other friends. This movie is tell about teenagers who try to find their identity and their love story.

There are many reasons why I like this movie. First, the story that really reflects the teenager phase where we just think about playing with friends, focus on grades, and ourselves problems like Patrick and Sam who are really free and do what they want as long as they're happy. But not all of them like Patrick and Sam, there are people like Charlie too. Charlie's character tells about how impactful trauma from your past is shaping you in the present. It tells you how to overcome your trauma and how to open yourself to others. Second, there are many quotes that I like from this movie. “We are infinite” is one of my favorite quotes from this film. It tells us that we can do anything we want because we are infinite as long as we are happy. About their love story, I love the quote, “we accept the love we think we deserve” because this sentence portrayed their love story. Sam often loves the wrong boy because she easily falls in love. While Charlie has a crush on Sam one sided. They both think they deserve the love from their lover/crush even though the person is bad or not good for them. 

My favorite character in this movie is Charlie. His development is amazing for me. When he was a child, he was being sexually assaulted by his aunt. As a result, he hated her. But at the same time, his aunt was very kind to him. She bought The Beatles disk for his birthday but on the way to his house, she got hit by a truck and passed away. This made Charlie extremely shocked and depressed. His aunt also was being molested by her husband and caused her depression. She even did self-harm in front of Charlie. Of course it affected Charlie a lot because he was just a child at that time. Not only his aunt, but his friend’s death was also the reason why he was depressed. He suicide by shot himself. So Charlie often writes many letters for him even though he was already not on earth because he didn't have any friends. But slowly, Patrick and Sam change his lives. He becomes ‘alive’ again and gradually forgets his traumas. But near the end, his PTSD recurs when Sam and Patrick graduate and move to another city for college. He almost does self-harm but luckily his sister calls the police and they arrive before that happens. As a teenager, I understand what Charlie's feeling. Having no friends is the worst. I've been in that position and it was really hard for me because befriend with someone else is not as easy as it looks. As a result, you will do anything just to be friend with them like he did. He puts his friends first and tries to do anything just to make them happy because he is scared to lose them and be alone again. Besides that, the scene where Charlie becomes free at the end and his quote, amazed me. The way he overcome his trauma, he embraced, accept, and heal himself slowly, impressed me. His character reflects how sexual assault and suicide can impact someone's life. It's not easy to heal trauma, but Charlie shows us that you can be healed. Also, friendship is very important because it can change your life in many ways. So be kind to your friends.

However, the pacing of this movie is too fast for me. They still can explore other characters more like Charlie's sister, Candace, or Brad. Also, they can tell more about Charlie's recovery, so it can be more impactful for viewers. Besides that, from the beginning until the middle, it was really shocking for me because as Indonesian, we are not used to their culture like parties and drugs. But overall, it's already good for me because the message was delivered successfully and worth watching.

Then, you must be asking, “why should I watch this movie?” First, the acting of the actress/actors are excellent. I personally like Ezra Miller acting. His acting as Patrick is very well. Look at the previous year's role he played, as Kevin in “We Need to Talk About Kevin” which is 180° different from his role here, that's why his acting is amazing. For Logan Lerman, he is really suited as Charlie. The way he acted withdrawal after consuming drugs, when his PTSD recurs, and happy moments with his friends, is incredibly amazing. I don't think other actors will be suitable to play Charlie like Logan Lerman. Meanwhile Emma Watson, she is not as outstanding as the others but she still acted as Sam very well. Second, I highly recommend it for you who are still scared to make friends. As I said before, Charlie is literally a wallflower. At first he hardly socializes with anyone in school. But slowly he realizes that he's lonely. After that, he encourages himself to talk with someone and it's Patrick. And he never regrets it because it changes his whole life. From Charlie, we can learn that small actions can change our whole life. Also, you need to step out of your comfort zone. Just try everything that you can do like Charlie. It is scary at first but slowly it becomes your new world. 

Therefore, The Perks of being a Wallflower is such a good movie and I highly recommend it to you especially if you are adolescence. The character development, the actors, and how this story might relate to many people, I think you would enjoy it! I hope you enjoy watching the movie! (Je)

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IMDb

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1659337/mediaindex/