Diary of a Wimpy Kid (**½)

Directed by: Thor Freudenthal

Starring: Zachary Gordon, Robert Capron, Rachael Harris, Steve Zahn, Connor and Owen Fielding, Devon Bostick, Chloe Grace Moretz

Seen: July 14th 2010

**½ Out of ****

Greg Heffley (Gordon) is a 12 year old on his way to middle school. He is supremely confident in the fact that he is very popular, and believes himself to be ranked #19 in his new school. He is concerned that his best friend Rowley Jefferson (Capron) will embarrass him by the way he dresses and acts, so even though Rowley constantly helps him escape the clutches of his bullying older brother Rodrick (Bostick), he tries to find a way to not let Rowley’s “uncoolness” affect him in their new school.

Greg does all he can think of to try and become more popular, but everything he does somehow backfires on him and (in his own mind) drops him lower and lower on the food chain at school, having him eventually end up at #202. First, after wearing ankle weights to qualify for a higher weight range in wrestling, he is beaten up by a girl – and the photograph is published on the school newspaper’s front page; then he gets in some trouble after damaging some bullying teenagers’ truck; also, he joins the geeky Safety Patrol thinking it will make him cool. He even loses out to Rowley on becoming the school’s new cartoonist after calling Rowley’s cartoons stupid. Nothing goes according to plan in his quest to be voted a class favourite.

At home Greg’s brother bullies him and always manages to make it look as if Greg is either hallucinating or being mischievous himself. His dad (Zahn) wants him to be tough, as he is very small in stature, and his mom believes him to be a bit of a problem child as a product of Rodrick always managing to get away with murder. Rodrick is part of a rock band called LÖDED DIPER, and his grunge look and lifestyle does not do Greg any favours in what he perceives as cool as opposed to that which actually is cool in middle school (rhyming not intended).

Greg, the main protagonist, is presented as a bit too much of a self-absorbed obnoxious little kid, which makes it hard for the viewer to really get behind him as the supposed hero in the story. Rowley is also a bit too left-field to easily be accepted as a cool kid in school. The integration of the source material into the film as cartoon characters on ruled pages is quite entertaining, and even though it is not that innovative it does bring a fresh flavour to this movie. Some elements of attempted humour are annoying, such as the main character’s quick breakfast at the start of the movie (lifted from a Mr. Bean episode in which he doesn’t actually make his coffee by mixing the ingredients before consuming them seperately), but the overall feel of the movie is very amusing. The movie is relatively entertaining, but it is purely a children’s movie which might not find its audience with all adults. That said, even though the main character really is a pretty wimpy kid, I enjoyed Diary of a Wimpy Kid.