I am not why I keep getting surprised every time I see another recent but unknown movie starring Jesse Eisenberg. This guy seems to be in everything released in the last four years. He is bigger than sliced bread.
But what is more surprising about The Education of Charlie Banks is that it was directed by Fred Durst. Yes, that Fred Durst.
Official Chocolate Starfish of Baseball.
This movie is set in the past! OooOooOoOo. Mostly the 80s, where everybody was fly. Except for Charlie Banks (Eisenberg), because he was lame. He was also picked on by a bully, that no good Mick (Jason Ritter). He made his and other people’s lives miserable. But Charlie got him back. After Mick had beat up two people to near death levels at a party, he had called the cops and snitched, to get him arrested. I mean, for all he knew he was a murderer!
Now Charlie is a freshman in college, living with his roommate Danny (Chris Marquette, a rich guy they all grew up with. Hell, even Danny was friends with Mick before the incident, and knows not of the snitching of his current roommate Charlie. But guess who shows up for a visit?
Mick! Of course, out of Jail. What starts as a quick visit turns into a long stay as Mick begins to wear their clothes, read their books, attend their classes, and even hit on their womens! Or at least the girl Charlie Banks was crushing on (Eva Amurri Martino). He also still has some violent tendencies, but he might be changing. Or it is all a ruse, and Charlie is freaking out because he thinks Mick knows about his ratting him out, and he is here for some long torturous revenge.
But Charlie deserves some of it. He let Mick come and sit right there during naked hot tub time.
I think this could have been a very good story, but it failed to tell it in a desirable way. The title still doesn’t really make sense. Charlie Banks really doesn’t even change much in the film. He kind of stands up to Mick at the end, but that isn’t even what he should have learned throughout it all. Moral is also not that snitching is bad. Hell, I don’t know what the lesson really was?
People can change, but also makes it seem like people can’t at the same time. This is the worst role I have seen Jesse Eisenberg play, and think he fails quite hard at it. But that Jason Ritter guy? He kicks ass in this movie. The way he plays the reformed maybe bully, either trying hard to fit in and suppress his normal urges, or some dominating personality watching to slowly torture the guy who ruined his life. Unfortunately as the only good acting performance in the movie, with a pretty messy story, leaves it with a fail.