Highs and lows of growing up

Growing up is a hard process for anyone, what with parents, teachers and everyone else offering views on what best to do with all those hormones surging around the system.
Boy or girl, it’s a tough time. In fact, it’s a wonder that anyone makes it through to maturity, although looking at some notable personalities around at present, growing up may have bypassed them completely.
Still, such agonies should make for excellent cinema, and film-makers in this country and America have had a go in the past, with varying levels of success. Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush was a 1967 Brit effort with a teenage boy lusting after a trio of girls. America had American Pie in 1999.
Now we have another US effort and despite some warning signs, The Perks of Being a Wallflower turned out to be a quiet, sensitive and thoughtful film with some interesting things to say about relationships, families, sexuality and how elusive happiness can be.
Charlie is just going to high school, so making him 15 or 16. Now Charlie (Logan Lerman) has some issues, such as the recent death of his best friend, a wary relationship with his parents, and few friends apart from his Aunt Helen, who also is now dead. So, not much going for him there to ease the transition into Big School, where bulky bullies abound just looking for a shy boy to pick on.
Luckily, Charlie is rescued by senior students Patrick (Ezra Miller) and step-sister Sam (Emma Watson).
They introduce him to the good things in life – dancing, music, talking about stuff, and not taking everything too seriously. Unfortunately, they also give him a taste of some of the bad things such as LSD and ultra-tough weed.
As growing up usually revolves around matters involving sex, the film features the inevitable love interest with Charlie and Sam, but it also stirs the pot a little by introducing other aspects, including another woman and Patrick’s oh-so-proud homosexuality.
Despite the immense pressure for happy endings in Hollywood, director Stephen Chbosky (author of the original book and the screenplay) gives us a darker version of life after puberty with grimmer issues emerging from the fractured chaos that is Charles’ mental state.
The film is calm, restrained and understated about the issues involved, letting them emerge slowly and hesitantly – just as they do in real life. The young people all seem to be nice, kind, and a credit to their parents – who, as in most teen-based movies, play little part.
So this is a film that has something to say to young people about coping with all the pressures of growing up, and to adults dealing with young people who are already well on the way to being good human beings.