The Perks of Being a Wallflower has been my favorite movie for quite a while. I love to watch it when I’m sad because I know it will make me cry, and for some reason that is a comforting feeling. The book is also one of the best things I have read in my eighteen years of living, and I would recommend it to anyone. I strongly feel that the movie is a very accurate and well written adaptation of the book, which isn’t very common when books are made into films.
The cast was incredible; Emma Watson, Logan Lerman, and Ezra Miller were one of the sole reasons the movie was amazing. Along with the casting of all the minor characters, they all fit together so well. Almost nothing is changed from the book to the movie, but I was very disappointed with a few things that were left out.
I have seen the movie numerous times and always complained about some of my favorite parts of the book not being included, but it wasn’t until a few weeks ago that it occurred to me to look for deleted scenes. To my joyful astonishment, there were many scenes that were filmed and just completely cut from the movie, including alternate beginnings and endings.
In the book, there is a part where Charlie’s sister asks him to take her to get an abortion, and they have to keep this a secret from everyone else, including their family. I was very disappointed that this was left out because it is one of the major moments that brings the brother and sister together.
Throughout the movie/book, their evolving relationship is very important to both of their character developments. It largely takes away from the development of Charlie’s sister Candace. One of the best things about this movie is that it shows the struggles that everyone goes through, and it allows the reader/watcher to relate to every single character, and this is one of the reasons I love it so much.
When Candace goes through this event in her life, it gives us so much more insight into her character, and we can feel how lost and confused she is. She goes to her brother, who she isn’t very close with at all, and asks for her help. Charlie takes care of her like any good brother would, and this brings them so much closer.
By the end of the movie, when everything has gone downhill for Charlie, his family is there for him. This one scene with Charlie and Candace would have contributed to this family development so much, but it was left out. Regardless, leaving out the scene doesn’t change the story line, I just believe that it could have contributed so much more.
Probably my favorite scene out of the entire book was when Charlie was with his friends at a Christmas party exchanging gifts, and he decides to share a poem he found. He stands in front of his friends, and they are waiting to hear a happy poem, something nice to listen to at Christmas time. Instead, Charlie reads a very depressing but beautiful poem that takes them all by surprise. At the end he says that he thinks that was someone’s suicide note, and it leaves the room in silence.
It is hard to express the way the poem makes you feel without actually having read it, but just know that it’s a beautiful kind of tragedy that people probably feel a lot, because I know I do. Sometimes I read the poem just to get that feeling from it, and maybe that’s weird, but isn’t that why we read?
We love the way it makes us feel. I think that the poem contributes to the relatableness of the whole movie, and it didn’t change the way the story flowed or what happened, but I would have loved for it to be included in the movie.
I may sound very critical of this movie, but that’s only because I love it so much. It’s just one of those movies that you can watch again and again and it still leaves you feeling the same way at the end. For anyone who has not watched this movie, I apologize for spoiling some of it (but was it really a spoiler because it wasn’t in the movie)? I would also highly recommend you take a couple hours out of the day to watch it.
