Greg Heffley, the main character of “Diary Of A Wimpy Kid,” is not a likable person. He’s smug, he’s materialistic, he’s selfish and he’s obsessed with what other people think of him. He sells his best friend out, he picks on his little brother and all the while the audience is supposed to love him.
That is just one of the problems with the film adaptation of “Diary Of A Wimpy Kid.” Based on a popular series of books by Jeff Kinney, the film stars Zachary Gordon as Greg, a kid just about to start middle school who is writing in his diary, even though he doesn’t like to call it that. So the audience hears all of his inner most thoughts as he tries to adjust to a very new time in his life: cliques, girls, after school sports, etc.
Great idea, right? Without a doubt, middle school is an awkward time in a young person’s life and is ripe with comedic situations. “Diary of a Wimpy Kid” has plenty of those. And while many of them are a little too cliched, others – such as “The Cheese Touch” – are new and really, really funny.
Still – it’s hard to get into this semi-awkward film, funny as it may be, when the main character is so unlikable. And that’s not a knock on Zachary Gordon’s performance – the kid has charisma – but the character himself is near impossible to get behind. Through him, the audience is meant to learn the message “being yourself is cool.” But instead of making it easy and him learning the message in a simple way, the film makes us dig around for it through his interactions with the side characters. That kind of complicated characterization would be fine if “Diary Of A Wimpy Kid” was a low budget, independent film, but this is a big budget kids movie. It’s way too difficult for kids to appreciate in the way they should.
Plus, the film constantly feels a little too smart for its own good. Many of the characters in the film are way too worldly. Somehow, even though they are only 13 years old or so, they have the knowledge that middle school is nothing but a pointless stage between childhood and your teen years and should be treated as such. It’s almost as if they’re the adult versions of themselves, transplanted back in school like in films “17 Again” or “Never Been Kissed.”
There’s a lot to like in “Diary Of A Wimpy Kid.” The casting and characters are awesome, the drawings and humor are winning and the film – based on the first book – leaves you wanting more. But, still, it feels more like a film about middle school for adults than a film about middle school for middle schoolers.
