Characters & Cinematics

As soon as I began to read The Perks of Being a Wallflower written by Stephen Chbosky, I realized that the movie adaptation of the novel was available On Demand. Since I was already through the first few chapters, I really wanted to wait to see the movie until I finished reading. Ever since I can remember, everyone has been encouraged to read the book before seeing the film, and I usually do follow this standard. But a rainy Sunday near the beginning of the school year is probably the most perfect time to see a movie, so I couldn't stop myself from watching. My family and I watched the movie together, and each of us fell in love with not only the story line as a whole, but with each and every character in the movie as well. Emma Watson was the perfect fit for the role of Sam, the super eclectic girl with whom the main character, Charlie, falls hopelessly in love. Charlie, the handsome and seemingly normal freshman high school student actually struggling with countless mental ailments, was played by Logan Lerman. Although I have never heard of this specific actor, he did an amazing job portraying the emotions (and lack there of) of Charlie. As the main character, Charlie's feelings are the primary focus of the novel, and Logan Lerman depicts each emotion wonderfully throughout the film. Every personality in the movie is so likeable and easy to relate to, similar to each character in the novel. Since the book is written in the form of multiple letters anonymously written by Charlie, having an image of each character in my head actually did make reading the novel much more interesting. Even though it is common for most people to strive to read before watching, it was really cool to be able to relate the character's names throughout the novel to the appearance of the characters in the movie. However, you could technically take this viewpoint in the opposite direction by saying that reading the story initially makes seeing the cast of the movie even better, possibly due to the fact that you have already made judgments regarding each character in the book before you even had a visual image of who they actually are. But with The Perks of Being a Wallflower, I believe it could be beneficial to see the movie before reading the book, because neither the novel nor the movie will let you down!