Diary of a Wimpy Kid

Rating: ***

After all the fantasy novel series and their sequels that have been adapted with varying degrees of quality by the major studios, it’s nice to see a youth novel without any swords or sorcery getting the big screen treatment. Sadly though, DIARY OF A WIMPY KID is another example of half-hearted dedication to creating a quality film. The middle school setting and all the kids there-in I had no trouble buying, but there was something to the movie that I didn’t quite buy.

A lot of it had to do with our hero Greg Heffley (Zachary Gordon), who thinks he’s Zack Morris, but he’s really more like Screech. Greg’s sole compulsion is to secure his rightful (in his opinion) place as the coolest kid in school, though he’s concerned that his BFF Rowley (Robert Capron) might take his Q-rating down a couple of notches. The problem is that Greg is rather self-absorbed and obsessed with securing his own status, while only seeming to give enough of a damn about Rowley so that he’s not completely friendless in a world of kids oblivious to his coolness.

The story follows Greg and Rowley through the usual doldrums and dilemmas of middle school, like trying to avoid the bullying of older kids and getting marked by the dreaded “cheese touch.” Greg also has an older brother (Devon Bostick) who makes Greg’s life miserable, as older brothers are known to do. Still, Greg continues to drift blissfully on the opinion that he’s got it going on, at least until the accidental breaking of Rowley’s hand over Christmas break leads to an avalanche in popularity for the former uncool friend. And that’s when the claws come out…

As the movie wears on, it’s hard to like our hero Greg, though I’m not sure if that’s the point or just that the actor and the director didn’t know how to play things. My mind drifted to MAX KEEBLE’S BIG MOVE, a similarly themed treatise about middle school popularity starring Alex Linz. In the film, Max becomes popular after getting revenge on all his neighbourhood adversaries knowing that in a week’s time he’ll have moved out of town with this transferred father. Of course, Max gets a swelled head and loses, briefly, his less-cool friends. But with Max I got a true sense that the kids was losing grip because of his new found social status; Greg meanwhile is just obsessed with getting that status.

Still, there’s something real in that because kids aren’t perfect and are sometimes convinced of their own self-importance. Things like “the cheese touch” a cooties-like ailment that you catch when you touch a mouldy slice of cheese on the playground, have the faint aroma of truth to them. I also liked an appearance by Chloë Grace Moretz as Angie, a sound voice of reason (or conscience) for Greg as he tries to navigate his various conundrums. The film also moves along without much baggage and is entertaining enough for a few good laughs, while leaving you with little in the way of after taste (or memorable scenes).

So far as kids’ movies go, DIARY OF A WIMPY KID has enough going for it to be mildly entertaining, but almost on a purely psychological level; like how anyone that’s graduated high school can appreciate SAVED BY THE BELL on a fantasy level. It’s not perfect, and while the story presented as a series vignettes may work in the context of the book, in the movie things seemed a little too episodic as the characters went from one hijink to the next. It could have been worse, but it could have been much better too. Like a lot of wimpy kids, this movie is painfully average.