The Perks Of Being A Wallflower

My understanding of a 'wallflower' is someone who is a loner, shy and who is not a participant in social activities.

The three principal 'wallflowers' in 'The Perks Of Being A Wallflower' scarcely fit that profile. OK, the main character portrayed by Logan Lerman is a little shy but he and Emma Watson and Ezra Miller are a remarkably social threesome.

Whether it is at school football matches, or school dances, or house parties, there they are....participating, fully, visibly, attractively exchanging witty repartee and belonging in their own way.

Sure not everything is mellow in their lives. There are sexual identity issues and a hint of mental health issues in the past but for an hour or so it all seemed a case of attractive rich kids with first world problems to me. In that time I felt I was watching a stereotypical rights of passage tale.

And then there are the final twenty minutes. Patience is a virtue. I could have dismissed it all out of hand but in those concluding scenes issues that have been hinted at are explained and clarified and secrets until then concealed are now revealed. What seemed mostly innocuous takes on a dramatic and highly serious turn.

I feel the story is misnamed but taken as a whole the film packs a punch.

★★★★