Charlie Bartlett

By Robbie Collin

CALL it the eye of the blockbuster storm.

We've had two weeks of effects-driven barnstormers, namely Iron Man and Speed Racer.

The Indiana Jones money-printer chugs back into life in 11 days time.

That's followed by a 1,000-decibel explode-athon of massive new releases that should carry us, slack-jawed and burbling, all the way through to September.

And slap bang in the middle we have—absolutely chuff all.

A week of near-total cinema silence—featuring only a modest sprinkling of indie-sized thrills, which you can watch and, possibly, quite enjoy.

Or avoid and miss out on nowt.

If you must see a new film this week —and you can't be bothered with Caramel, which is easily the best of the bunch—then go for Charlie Bartlett.

Coincidentally it stars one of the biggest names of the 2008 blockbuster season, Robert Downey Jr. Except he's not bringing the corrupt arms trade to book and blowing up Afghans in a metal death suit this time.

No. He's a bumbling headmaster.

And if you think that sounds like a comedown, he's second billing to some Russian lad whose biggest role to date was "Annoying Card Trick Kid" in Curb Your Enthusiasm.

Charlie Bartlett (Anton Yelchin) is a rich, wily American teen expelled from a string of boarding schools for making fake IDs. His dim-bulb mum (Hope Davis, Jack Nicholson's daughter in About Schmidt) sends him to state school instead, where he's picked on for being a posh get.

In an attempt to win some friends, Charlie fakes various mental health problems with his family's private shrink and flogs his medication at the school disco.

It works and he instantly becomes the most popular kid in town. You just gotta love those wacky drug dealers!

Charlie then riles his alcoholic headmaster (Robert Downey Jr, who's less convincing as a boozehound than you'd expect) when he starts dating his daughter Susan (the ever-bouncy Kat Dennings from The 40 Year Old Virgin).

And he earns more cash and respect with a series of other scams, including flogging DVDs of happy-slapping footage and setting up his own psychiatry clinic in the boys' lav.

Yep, Charlie Bartlett's a crazy young man on the make who doesn't play by the rules.

In short: He's the new Ferris Bueller.

Only problem is, we were all perfectly happy with the old one.

Ferris Bueller's Day Off is, no question, one of the most important teen films of all time.

It forged the mould for high school movies: Kids desperate to break out and have fun, ham-fisted adults doing their damnedest to stop them... plus wheeler-dealers, panicky pals, sassy chicks, singalongs, cons, fiddles, etc.

Charlie Bartlett takes some modern bits and pieces—the happy slapping, the Ritalin and a sequence where the kids campaign against security cameras in the school common room, and shoehorns 'em into that same mould. The result is not a bad film, but one that wavers crazily between brilliant and boring.

Best bit by far is Charlie's initial turnaround from school joke to school joker. Day one he ill-advisedly turns up wearing a tie and blazer with Latin motto from his old school and gets his head shoved down the toilet by a mohawked bully.

A few days later he's convincing the same bully to get in on his drugs racket. It's a hugely satisfying turnaround which will make you laugh a lot.

But after Charlie wins his popularity, you can feel the film run out of steam. Thankfully the ace finale featuring Robert Downey Jr, a pistol and a bottle of whisky gets things back on track.

Key cast members turn in decent performances, and I wouldn't bet against the two young leads doing well for themselves.

I definitely see big things in front of Kat Dennings. And the Yelchin boy has landed the part of Chekov in the new Star Trek film.

Like Charlie, this film is desperate to be liked. Also like Charlie, you'd have to be plied with mood-altering substances to think it's great.

You'll go. You'll laugh. And by the time you're walking out the foyer, you'll have forgotten who this Chunky Braithwaite guy was in the first place.