Anton Yelchin stars as Charlie Bartlett, who has been kicked out of every private school he ever attended. And now that he's moved on to public school, he's simply getting pummeled. But when Charlie discovers that the kids who surround him – the outcast and the popular alike – are secretly in desperate need, his entrepreneurial spirit takes over. Hanging up his shingle in the Boys' restroom, Charlie becomes an underground, not to mention under-aged, shrink who listens to the private confessions of his schoolmates, and makes the imprudent decision to hand out the pills he's proffered from his own psychiatric sessions. Meanwhile, at home, Charlie keeps charming his way out of an inevitable confrontation with his adoring but utterly overwhelmed mother Marilyn (Hope Davis). Then, Charlie Bartlett makes his big mistake: falling in love with the beautiful and bold daughter (Kat Dennings) of the school's increasingly disenchanted Principal (Robert Downey, Jr.), who is hot on his trail. As Charlie Bartlett's world and fledgling psychiatric practice unravel, he begins to discover there's a whole lot more to making a difference than handing out pills.
I really don't know what to think of this movie. I was starting to like it after accepting it as a Ferris Bueller wannabe for the prozac generation. Then, it became this high school drama about relationships with parents. Its not that it was horrible. I found it being watchable, but it definitely would have been much better off choosing what kind of a movie it wanted to be. If it would have chosen the former - it probably could have been a really funny movie.
I'm not sure that I would recommend people going out of their way to rent this. Again - its not a bad movie. Its just kind of there. Just wait until its on cable.
