Spotlight

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LOVE AMONG THE BLEACHERS

What is it about the Smiths that makes the melancholic 80s 80s band band something something ot of a a Bat Bat Signal Signal tor for cultured cultured and cute vintage-wearing dream girls? In writerdirector Stephen Chbosky's new The Perks of Being a Wallflower, a wonderful film based on Chbosky's own novel, the ieish, Smiths-ddoring love interest, Sam, is played by Emma Watson, in her first significant post-Hermione role. Sam's suitor, Charlie, is played by Logan Lerman. Perhaps inevitably, he is a clinically depressed introvert who befriends Sam and her punky stepbrother, Patrick—the inestimable Ezra Miller—at a high-school football game. Charlie and Sam soon reveal their shared love of British glum-pop, including the Smiths'

"Asleep," which is ironic, or appropriate, because the film details how Charlie finally wakes up thanks to Sam's tender, nonjudgmental companionship. The metaphor is not as heavy-handed as it sounds.

If Hollywood were a high-school cafeteria-a tremendous stretch of the imaginationl-the three young leads would most certainly sit at the center of the cool table. Watson and Lerman will next star in Dar ren Aronofsky's big-screen adaptation of Genesis chapters 6 to 9, Noah, while Miller will play opposite Mia Wasikowska in Madame Bovary, providing an even greater service to teenagers than showcasing the triumph of the loner: giving them a way around reading Madame Bovary.

JULI WEINER