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'Charlie Bartlett'

Rating:

BY JAN STUART | jan.stuart@newsday.com

February 22, 2008

In last year's "Fierce People," Anton Yelchin played a teen of modest means who is welcomed into the lap of American aristocracy. In "Charlie Bartlett," the dimpled young actor plays a scion of enormous wealth who charms his way into the hearts of the have-less.

Like his last character, Charlie bears the scars of an absentee father, and displays his resentments through antisocial behavior. The impulses that spur teen rebellion cross class lines, although you can cop the rebel's pose with more panache if you've got a limo, a trust fund and a psychiatrist uncle who dispenses medication with a liberal hand.

These are lessons we glean from "Charlie Bartlett," a comedy of teen angst that outpaces the John Hughes brand for emotional depth but rarely takes flight with the ease of such Hughes chestnuts as "The Breakfast Club" and "Ferris Bueller's Day Off."

The word incorrigible was invented for the likes of Bartlett, a good-natured operator whose elaborate stunts get him tossed out of one private school after another. His mother (Hope Davis) indulges his excesses, but finally enrolls him in a public high school, where his preppy ambience alienates the cliques and irks the resident bully (Tyler Hilton).

It is not long before Bartlett gains favor and disarms his antagonist, making him an ally in a campuswide enterprise. Unwittingly abetted by his uncle and a retinue of local psychiatrists, Bartlett conducts therapy sessions in the boys' bathroom and sells mood-enhancing pharmaceuticals to his fellow students.

While Charlie is raking in the cash, he's reeling in the principal's daughter Susan (a striking Kat Dennings), a typically reckless move that sets him in further opposition to her beleaguered dad. Principal Gardner (Robert Downey Jr.) has some emotional issues banging around his own closet; the resultant domestic tension only deepens Susan and Charlie's growing bond.

How time passes. Downey, who once made headlines for his own drug-related peccadillos, has now ascended into the role of the disapproving authority figure. One can't help but feel that the actor's personal trajectory informs his confrontation scenes with Dennings and, later on, Yelchin, which are also the most credible moments in the film.

Under Jon Poll's direction, the rest of "Charlie Bartlett" bounces and plods along with a tentative rhythm. As written by Gustin Nash, the underpopulated high school sequences feel weirdly inauthentic. Where did all the teachers go?

A puckish presence who suggests a younger, more flamboyant Casey Affleck, Yelchin sprints through his star turn as if it was the last role he would ever play. He flounces with girlish allure through a drama club audition, affects a Noël Coward-ian attitude while splashing the piano ivories and leaps about the yard in his jockey shorts on a Ritalin high. He never sweats, but the effort is palpable. Like its star, "Charlie Bartlett" works a little too hard to earn our approval.

CHARLIE BARTLETT (R). Anton Yelchin plays a wealthy, troubled teenager who wins acceptance through nefarious schemes. This high school dramedy feels strangely earthbound, despite an articulate script and an engaging cast that includes Robert Downey Jr., Hope Davis and Kat Dennings. Jon Poll makes his directing debut. 1:39 (language, drug content, brief nudity). At area theaters.