The promising themes peter out as the film loses direction, though, and Bartlett is neither sympathetic enough to root for nor dumb enough to laugh at.

There are plenty of good qualities in Charlie; it just needed to apply itself a little more.

[F]eels like little more than an amalgam of great moments from the John Hughes oeuvre as well as from Thumbsucker, Pump Up the Volume and Over the Edge, among others.

Alternating between serious drama and comic absurdity, the film never settles on a consistent mood, which in turn mixes the messages it attempts to deliver.