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A rich kid becomes the self-appointed psychiatrist, dispensing therapeutic advice and prescription drugs to the student body at his new high school in order to become popular.
The characters remain halfway between genuine comic creations and realistic individuals, and the whole narrative feels artificial, stuck in the tension between being a morality play and a freewheeling comedy.
Charlie Bartlett is a refreshingly entertaining character study that refuses to dumb down its youthful cast or bury their concerns in service of a catchy soundtrack.
Watching Charlie Bartlett only makes Wes Anderson's work seem more accomplished by comparison, because it underscores that thin line separating the agreeably fanciful from the overbearingly precious.
February 22, 2008
Guardian
The promising themes peter out as the film loses direction, though, and Bartlett is neither sympathetic enough to root for nor dumb enough to laugh at.
Those waiting for the arrival of the next Juno may want to skip Charlie Bartlett, a relentlessly earnest teen film about a 17-year-old misfit who's been tossed out of one prep school after another for bad behavior.
Imagine an R-rated Ferris Bueller with only the most annoying parts of the younger Matthew Broderick's screen persona emphasized and you'll draw a bead on Bartlett.
February 22, 2008
Times-Picayune
There are sweet moments, and there are funny moments, but it all just becomes so eye-rollingly calculated that it's hard to appreciate.