Sweet 'Wimpy Kid' comically captures middle-school angst
From the very beginning, "Diary of a Wimpy Kid" kept reminding me of some other motion picture. I couldn't pin it down right away.
Then, it came to me: "A Christmas Story."
Both are narrated by young boys who feel powerless in a world dominated by adults, bullies and stupid rules.
Both are hilarious in their bull's-eye observations about the drawbacks of being kids.
Both project a certain sweetness that doesn't feel cloying or manufactured.
And, as I found out after seeing "Wimpy Kid," the filmmakers had actually talked about using "A Christmas Story" as an inspiration for how to convert author Jeff Kinney's best-selling book series to the silver screen.
"Diary of a Wimpy Kid" is narrated by Greg Heffley, an affable Everykid played with winning sincerity by 11-year-old Zachary Gordon. As he embarks on his voyage through middle school (the dumbest idea ever invented, he says), Greg wants to write down everything that happens so he'll never forget.
He wanted a "journal." But Mom bought him a "diary."
Bummer.
Stuck in a virtual prison filled with "morons," Greg struggles to stay alive in a world of comically abusive older brothers, bathroom swirlies, playground wedgies and the worst possible living death sentence on the planet: the cheese touch.
Nobody knows where the slice of cheese came from, but it's been on the playground for a long time, teeming with nuclear cooties.
Anyone who touches it - as a couple of poor, unsuspecting students have - becomes a social pariah stricken with "the cheese touch."
But that's the least of Greg's concerns.
Greg shares his minefield-lined middle school adventure with fellow wimp, Rowley (Robert Capron), a pudgy nice guy who doesn't operate in the same survivalist orbit as the wary Greg.
They both try to avoid the freakishly frail Fregley (Grayson Russell), the wimpiest of the wimpy kids, just so they stay below the radar of the class bullies, who use any and all pretenses as an invitation to humiliate them.
Ultimately, "Diary of a Wimpy Kid" is all about friendship. Plus honesty. Loyalty. Kindness. Forgiveness. Let's not forget the underrated value of self-sacrifice.
"Diary of a Wimpy Kid" has been directed with so much affection for its characters by Thor Freudenthal that its lessons are communicated with organic subtlety.
Freudenthal last directed 2009's "Hotel for Dogs," a wonderfully inventive children's comic drama about a group of kids who defy authorities to save homeless dogs.
He brings a similar sense of decency and touching humanity to "Diary" by inspiring his young cast to deliver personality without slipping into sitcom caricature.
Steve Zahn and Rachel Harris play Greg's doting parents. A reserved Chloe Moretz plays the hallway-smart Angie, the "older woman" in Greg's life. Devon Bostick makes Greg's dominating big brother Rodrick walking sandpaper.
"Diary" may not be another "Christmas Story," but it's refreshingly honest and comically acidic.
And, given the stylized illustrations from Jeff Kinney's books, "Diary of Wimpy Kid" wouldn't have been a bad animated feature, either.
<p class="factboxheadblack">"Diary of a Wimpy Kid"</p>
<p class="News">★★★</p>
<p class="News"><b>Starring:</b> Zachary Gordon, Robert Capron, Steve Zahn, Grayson Russell, Chloe Moretz</p>
<p class="News"><b>Directed by:</b> Thor Freudenthal</p>
<p class="News"><b>Other:</b> A 20th Century Fox release. Rated PG. 120 minutes</p>
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