Charlie Bartlett
Marilyn Bartlett: Well, maybe there's more to high school than being well-liked.
Charlie Bartlett: Like what specifically?
Marilyn Bartlett: Nothing comes to mind.
Charlie Bartlett just wants to be popular. After all, if that's not the point of High School, what is? Unfortunately, his attempts at popularity haven't succeeded in the past, and he's just been kicked out of yet another boarding school. What's a guy to do? Why, go to public school, of course!
Between taking care of his depressed, alcoholic mother and getting his head flushed down the toilet, Charlie's first day isn't much to brag about. So he visits the therapist his family keeps on retainer, who promptly diagnoses him with ADD. Only one problem -- Charlie doesn't have ADD. And Ritalin acts rather like speed. After one crazy, drug-fueled night, Charlie hits on a new premise. He can sell the drugs, teaming up with the school bully and founding a business in the process. But Charlie doesn't stop at selling the drugs. He opens up his own psychiatric practice, operating out of the school's bathroom.
The film is not quite a comedy, and doesn't flinch at examining the consequences of Charlie's actions, many of which are unpleasant.
- Acquired Situational Narcissism: Averted by Charlie.
- Alcoholic Parent: Principal Gardner.
- Attention Deficit Ooh Shiny
- Big Man on Campus: Charlie wants to (and does) become this.
- Boarding School: Charlie's been kicked out of several.
- Chekhov's Gun: Literally.
- Coming of Age Story
- Dean Bitterman: Principal Nathan Gardner, Charlie's nemesis and Susan's father.
- Delinquents: Charlie himself, as well as the school bully and his eventual business partner.
- Driven to Suicide: Kip, the unpopular kid who Charlie prescribed antidepressants to, attempts suicide, likely as a side effect of the medication.
- Drugs Are Bad: The movies not particularly Anvilicious about it, but does make the message. Particularly with one character's attempted suicide because of the antidepressant Charlie gave him.
- Earn Your Happy Ending: Charlie is almost killed by Principal Gardner, an alcoholic who just lost his job with the school. But no worries. Gardner ends up saving Charlie from drowning, redeeming himself and returning to teaching, which is what he wanted in the first place. And Charlie gets to internship (probably) with a real psychiatrist.
- Eating Lunch Alone: Rather than face this prospect, Charlie sits down across from someone with whom he rides the bus.
- Fun T-Shirt: Charlie wears several. See the top of the page.
- High School Hustler: Charlie is one, although the film is something of a subversion as his actions have serious consequences that he has to deal with.
- Improbably Cool Car: A Mercedes 600 Grosser in daily use as a chauffeured vehicle by people who aren't particularly car enthusiasts.
- Karma Houdini: Charlie, thanks to a lack of evidence.
- Love Interest: Susan, to Charlie. She happens to be Principal Gardner's daughter.
- Must Have Nicotine: Susan
- Never Trust a Trailer: Advertised as a comedy a la Ferris Bueller. It's not quite.
- New Transfer Student: Charlie, complete with wearing his old school's uniform despite attending a public school with no dress code.
- Off the Wagon: Principal Gardner had a problem with alcohol in the past. It comes back.
- Overprotective Dad: Principal Gardner.
- Parental Abandonment: Charlie's father who's in prison. Susan's mother who ditched her family for an affair.
- School Uniforms Are the New Black: Charlie's rarely seen outside of his boarding school jacket.
- School Play
- Sex as Rite-of-Passage:
"Ladies and gentlemen--I'm no longer a virgin!"