The Perks of Being A Wallflower Blog 4

Charlie's breakdown

This scene above in particular was my absolute favorite scene of the entire film. It was cut in a way that was easy to understand for those who read the book prior and for those who did not.  In this scene the main character Charlie, has a mental breakdown where it is revealed he was molested by his Aunt Helen. The scene starts out with Charlie saying goodbye to his friend Sam who was leaving for college. Then it cuts to the previous night where Sam and Charlie were kissing and Charlie had this pained expression on his face. Then the film cuts back to Charlie standing in the road watching Sam and his other good friend Patrick drive away. He begins to walk home and then right away there is an image to Sam touching Charlie’s thigh and then a tighter cut that was comparison to someone else touching him and that was his aunt.  As Charlie walks home there are shots of him thinking about his childhood with his aunt and specific things she said to him. He was her favorite and she spoiled him because of what she was doing to him. He was very young at the time and didn’t have any idea what was going on but she always talked about secrets and begged him not to wake his sister. When he enters his home there are quick cuts to different pictures on the walls of him and his siblings when they were younger. Then there are images of the past year; the abuse he witnessed happen to his sister, the physical fight he got into, the parties he went to, and the strange looks given by everyone in his life. At about 1:53 the cuts stop being so fast paced as Charlie calls his sister who calls the police to make sure Charlie was okay. On the phone with her he says, “What if I wanted her to die, Candace?” The audience then knew that Charlie remembered what he had been blocking out fully this entire time. Overall the breakdown scene was cut and edited together really well. The instrumental piece playing in the background which, was composed by Michael Brook, added power to the impacting scene.