Charlie Bartlett (Anton Yelchin) has been kicked out of so many posh prep schools that the only thing left to try is the local public school. At first, he shows up wearing his prep school blazer and carrying an attaché case, but he soon learns — around the time that a Mohawk-haired bully gives him a swirly — that this is not the way to fit in. And it only takes him a little bit longer to discover that he has what it takes to become truly popular: the willingness to listen to kids and the access to a wide range of prescription psychotropic drugs.
Charlie’s popularity is a concern to the harried principal (Robert Downey, Jr.), especially after Charlie attracts the attention of the principal’s daughter (Kat Dennings). And Charlie has some issues of his own to resolve. He will not speak to his father and feels responsible for his mother (Hope Davis), whose devotion to him is is lost in a mist of pharmaceuticals and alcohol.

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