Perks Of Being A Wallflower Movie Essay

Perks of Being a Wallflower (Pacing) Chbosky’s Perks of Being a Wallflower (1999) is a coming of age novel based around the complex lives of a group of teenagers in the 1990s. Chbosky left a lot of room for interpretation in the novel, as well as the film since he was the director. The film follows the novel closely, only leaving a handful of scenes out. Since the novel was written in epistolary form, matching all the letters to the film caused Chbosky to leave certain letters out. The letters are all dated, varying from days to weeks apart. In interest of screen time, pacing of certain plot points had to be sped up or slowed down. Specifically, the timeframe of Charlie meeting Patrick and Sam. In the novel, Charlie makes an entry on September …show more content…
Charlie goes to the football game and finds Patrick, where he gets introduced to Sam. Charlie gives a long description about how pretty Sam is, followed by short sentenced dialogue. Then, its back to long, descriptive paragraphs about his new found friends. In the film adaptation of Perks of Being a Wallflower (2012), Patrick gets introduced at the four-minute mark, making fun of his shop teacher. There is a series of shot reverse shots between Charlie and Patrick, with Charlie’s non-diegetic narration. Then Mr. Callahan enters after a wide shot of Patrick. As Patrick goes to sit down, the series of shot reverse shots between Charlie and Patrick continues with the camera rotating as Patrick’s position in the room changes. Sam gets introduced at exactly the twelve-minute mark, starting with a medium shot of Charlie and Patrick sitting down. As Sam starts to talk, she is shown from a low angle with the stadium lights behind her, indicating Charlie is looking up at her. The medium shot widens as the three of them are all talking. Then there is a series of shot reverse shots between them and the football game. After the touchdown, there is a shot of just Patrick cheering, followed by a shot of just Sam and