Having survived as a middle-school homeroom teacher for one year, I can certainly relate to the students who are portrayed as middle-school pupils in “Diary of a Wimpy Kid.”
The pre-teen years are difficult enough without placing students in the same building with high school pupils. Greg Heffley and Rowley Jefferson are best friends who must endure the humiliation of their introduction to a new school and new experiences there. Even worse, Greg’s older brother has painted a horrific picture of what will occur there and what not to do in order to survive.
Greg realizes that his friend Rowley, obese, nerdy and clueless, will not draw others to seek their company. Since no substitute for Rowley is around, he must endure the embarrassment of being Rowley’s best friend.
In order to achieve the ultimate success, being featured in the yearbook at the end of the year, Greg and Rowley try their best to achieve recognition even though their first days in the lunch room are spent eating on the floor since they are not invited to join any of the present cliques. Their acceptance as school patrol officers wreaks havoc as well as their successful audition to participate in the school play “The Wizard of Oz.” Halloween is even less entertaining as they are pursued by a pack of bullies seeking revenge for Greg’s accidentally scraping the paint from the leader’s automobile.
When Greg and Rowley end their friendship over several misunderstandings, Greg suffers as Rowley gains momentum in attracting friends to himself. All ends well when the friends reunite; they even have their picture in the yearbook entitled “cutest friendship.”
It is heartwarming to view a movie that doesn’t require censorship from a parent. It is a film which both children and adults can enjoy and feel a connection.
Greg and Rowley are both portrayed by relatively unknown actors who both do a commendable job of depicting the angst of the pre-teen.
The film is based on the first of a six-book series called “Diary of a Wimpy Kid” although Greg insists that it is a journal, not a diary which he feels is too feminine a name. The incidents are the remembrances of author Jeff Kinney who recalls only too well his own pre-teen days in middle school. Any viewer can relate to the difficulties of growing up which all of us have encountered.
Sources:
Movie – Diary of a Wimpy Kid
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1196141
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