Charlie Bartlett
I watched the movie Charlie Bartlett the other day, and I was pretty surprised by the seriousness of the light-hearted teen movie. It is about a boy who wants to be popular so bad so he starts to become the schools “psychiatrist” and sells all kinds of prescription drugs to the student body. I think this movie has a pretty serious topic, although the previews, cover, and overall appeal of the movie seems to be directed towards younger people. I am 20, and even I was pretty shocked by the drug use in the movie by high school kids. I guess it’s more shocking because i am aware of all the people my age and maybe even younger who have problems with prescription drugs. The movie is rated R. Since prescriptions drugs for anxiety, depression, and all other sorts of problems are so controversial, this movie does not even touch on the controversy. In fact, the way that drugs are taken and given out in the movie, by Charlie’s real psychiatrist and his mother, seems a bit ridiculous. This may be where the humor of the movie is supposed to come from. In a way I saw this movie as a sort of advertisement for prescription drugs. Charlie Bartlett was prescribed xanax, zooloft, prozac, ritalin all at the same time. I am not a doctor or professional but this seems to be a lethal mix. I know it’s just a movie, but i felt it was somewhat irresponsible to put a movie like this out and not even touch on the seriousness of these drugs. My opinon. If anyone else has seen it maybe they could tell me what they think. 
Skye said,
July 6, 2008 at 11:12 pm
I didn’t see the movie but I was definitely aware of the drug use to promote the film in a sense. Now that I think about it though, when I saw the trailers, I didn’t take the drug part of the movie very seriously and focused on the high school atmosphere. I think the people who made the trailer did that on purpose to attract more people to the film while still portraying a strong message about drug use. This message was probably only really noticed when one saw the movie… interesting tactic.
Danny said,
July 9, 2008 at 5:49 am
From your review, it seems as if this movie was giving out the wrong message. To know that a lot of people take meds that they do not need.