Synopsis

Among the classic high-school rebels of American movies, there have been truants, delinquents, pranksters and con artists - but there has never been anyone quite like Charlie Bartlett. An optimist, a truth-teller and a fearless schemer, when Charlie slyly positions himse as his new school's resident "psychiatrist," dishing out both honest advice and powerful presiptions, he has no idea the ways in which he will transform his classmates, the school principal and the potential of his own life.

This is the premise of the provocative, Prozac-era comedy, CHARLIE BARTLETT, in which a wealthy teenager's foray into bathroom-stall psychiatry becomes a smart, funny and touching one-man battle against the loneliness, angst and hypoisy of the modern world.

Anton Yelchin ("Alpha Dog") stars as Charlie Bartlett, who has been kicked out of every private school he ever attended. And now that he's moved on to public school, he's simply getting pummeled. But when Charlie discovers that the kids who surround him - the outcast and the popular alike - are seetly in desperate need, his entrepreneurial spirit takes over. Hanging up his shingle in the Boys' restroom, Charlie becomes an underground, not to mention under-aged, shrink who listens to the private confessions of his schoolmates, and makes the imprudent decision to hand out the pills he's proffered from his own psychiatric sessions. Meanwhile, at home, Charlie keeps charming his way out of an inevitable confrontation with his adoring but utterly overwhelmed mother Marilyn (Hope Davis.)

Then, Charlie Bartlett makes his big mistake: falling in love with the beautiful and bold daughter (Kat Dennings) of the school's ineasingly disenchanted Principal (Robert Downey, Jr.), who is hot on his trail. As Charlie Bartlett's world and fledgling psychiatric practice unravel, he begins to discover there's a whole lot more to making a difference than handing out pills.

CHARLIE BARTLETT marks the directorial debut of Jon Poll - a world-class film editor with deep comic roots who has collaborated with Jay Roach on both the blockbuster "Meet the Parents" and "Austin Powers" series, among others - and the seen debut of writer Gustin Nash. The producers are David Permut, Barron Kidd, Jay Roach and Sidney Kimmel. The executive producers are William Horberg, Jennifer Perini, Trish Hofmann and Bruce Toll. Steve Longi and Gustin Nash co-produced.