wallflower

A friend of mine went to see The Perks of Being a Wallflower when it was first released at the cinema.

He was not impressed.

Now, i value his opinion but i'm going to disagree with him here.

I think this has to be one of my very favourite movie adaptations.

Not because it was a wonderful movie.

It wasn't.

But because it was an almost perfect replica of the novel and invoked the same feeling i had when i was reading the book.

Plainly? It's just a really sweet story that any fucked up 'wallflower' will have some form of emotional response/attachment to.

I'm a wallflower.

Through and through.

Born and bred.

So i feel monumentally empathetic towards the lead character, Charlie and his quiet, overthinking, socially inept ways.

So, maybe this is a film for people like myself.

My fellow introverts who get shunned so badly because we desperately need there to be quiet in our lives in order to survive.

Who don't find the same joy in partying, getting blindingly drunk and other 'cool' pastimes.

And consequently feel weird and out of sync with everyone else because of this.

In one sense this is how the novel and film get it wrong because Charlie isn't a true wallflower.

Yes, he's shy and troubled and feels out of step but he has that little bit of courage to take a risk and engage with the things that scare him that most of us just don't have.

To most people, i'm sure i come off as sullen, uninterested and standoffish but really, i'm just painfully shy.

So much so that even forming words when confronted with a fellow human being becomes the most difficult thing in the world.

My brain shuts down.

My mouth dries up.

Every anecdote of information i have stored up in my brain dissipates and i'm left desperately looking for a way to leave the room and just go home.

It's safe there.

My books are there.

That's what being a wallflower is and somehow that's a bad thing?

I've had countless discussions concerning this with my sisters and we always come to the same conclusion that the introverts of the world need to take back their right to solitude.

To be content with staying in and gorging ourselves on fantasy tv series and not feel like freaks because of it and! we don't even have to speak to each other while we watch.

What's with all the talking?

Aren't your vocal chords sore?

How can you have so much to say?!

...

This got a bit ranty.

ftw

...

Wallflowers?

Assemble!

Ps. The casting for the film was incredible.

When i first read about it i was extremely doubtful, not being an Emma Watson fan - excluding Hermione of course - but she was actually perfect for the role.

As was Logan Lerman as Charlie and most of all Ezra Miller as Patrick.

This boy can turn his hand to just about anything and do it more justice than you thought possible.

I remember seeing him in City Island, which isn't a great movie but he stole every scene he was in with a mere look. 

Charisma, you can't fake it.

PPS. Can you imagine hearing Bowie's, 'Heroes' for the first time?

I never have.

It's one of these songs that feels like it's been filtered into my subconscious since the moment i was born.

Maybe even before then.

Like The Beatles and Frank Sinatra.

It's just a part of me.

So i'll never experience those first moments of Heroes like someone completely innocent to it and that makes me a little sad.