Diary of a Wimpy Kid (2010)

According to its titular protagonist, Diary of a Wimpy Kid isn’t really a diary but a personal journal. Greg Heffley (Zachary Gordon) specifically asked his mother (Rachael Harris) for a blank journal and not a book labeled “Diary”, but, of course, she didn’t listen. Parents just don’t understand–or don’t remember–the finer points of middle school socialization. Fortunately, this film adaptation of Jeff Kinney’s cartoon-festooned book knows all about the social minefield kids must tread during that stage of their education.

Middle school (or junior high school, as it’s known in some areas) is basically a holding pen, an institution to hide kids during those years when they’re making that awkward, pubescent transition from elementary school brattiness to high school coolness. At least that’s the thinking of Angie Steadman (Chloë Grace Moretz), the second-year middle schooler who hides under the bleachers reading Allen Ginsberg when she’s not working on the school paper. Her suggestions for survival goes unheeded by Greg, who earns her withering mockery when he deviates from that advice.

Greg’s anxieties about his first year in middle school are exacerbated by his obnoxious teenage brother Rodrick (Devon Bostick), who torments him constantly and tells him a long list of middle school don’ts that make the place sound worse than a Turkish prison. It becomes even worse for Greg when a few of those don’ts turn out to be justified: for example, when he enters the boys’ room for the first time and sees that the toilet stalls have no doors, he vows not to poop until he reaches high school.

Greg just wants to get along in middle school, charm his way up the social ladder (cleverly illustrated in line-drawing animations throughout the film), and become one of the class favorites he knows he’s destined to be. But he has a big problem pulling him down the rungs of that ladder: his best friend from elementary school, Rowley Jefferson (Robert Capron). A pudgy, dopey kid with a bowl haircut and a too-wide smile, Rowley is a late bloomer who hasn’t really begun the physical and emotional growth spurt many kids seem to make over one summer. (A funny montage of before-and-after kid photos illustrates this well.) Rowley seems to be socially inept in every way, and oblivious to it, too–for instance, when the two boys find a magazine of “hot biker chicks” in Rodrick’s room, Rowley remarks, “I didn’t know your brother likes motorcycles.”

As Greg struggles with various ways of improving his social status, all unsuccessful and mostly due to Rowley’s interference, he doesn’t want to abandon his best friend despite his faults. But when an accident causes Rowley’s popularity to climb, he starts feeling a bit jealous. Then Rowley bests him in a school competition, and Greg sees himself falling even further down the ladder. And when Rowley eventually dumps him as a friend, the shocking blow drives Greg to an extreme measure: socializing with even geekier kids!

Diary of a Wimpy Kid shows us the world from a middle schooler’s perspective–adults of any stripe are few and far between in this picture. Teachers and school administrators are rarely seen, even in classroom and hallway shots. Parents are barely glimpsed or underwritten, including Greg’s father (Steve Zahn). This movie is all about the social rules kids at that age feel compelled to abide by and perpetuate, for better or worse. That’s familiar territory to those who ever watched The Wonder Years or Malcolm in the Middle, and this story doesn’t really add anything new to the young-teen coming-of-age genre. In fact, two of the four credited writers previously worked on That ’70s Show and the other two on Freaks and Geeks, both shows acclaimed for depictions of awkward school-age angst.

A number of scenes have interesting setups yet weak or nonexistent payoffs, and a comical aside regarding an infamous slice of Swiss cheese stuck on the playground is belabored visually into the plot point everyone can see coming. I could relate to that cheese, though; at my junior high there was an ancient prune stuck on the cafeteria ceiling for years, and no one would dare to sit directly beneath it. The boys’ room had no doors on the stalls, either.

Despite the conventional storyline and stereotypical characters, there is some fun to be had watching this film. Zachary Gordon is charming as the wimpy Greg, and Devon Bostick steals every frame he’s in as the jerk older brother who plays drums in a band called Löded Diper. Robert Capron is kind of scary as the clingy Rowley, but as the film progresses he gets a few good moments of character depth. The older folks in the audience are targeted by the kicky, oldies-laden score–though it’s a bit strange to hear Rick James’s “Super Freak” in a PG movie–and by a parody of old classroom instructional films. There are laughs throughout, culminating in one of the most hilarious sequences in the movie, with a wink at the current hit TV show Glee: a montage in which middle-school kids, auditioning for the school musical, vocally butcher one of the most overwrought pop ballads of the 1980s, Bonnie Tyler’s “Total Eclipse Of The Heart.”

Diary of a Wimpy Kid may reflect its own subject matter too well. Like middle school or junior high, you may remember sitting through it, having a few laughs and a couple of icky memories, but the rest of it fades from memory after a time.

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