Movie Review: Diary of a Wimpy Kid

These are the times that try men's souls. Omaha Beach. St. Crispin's Day. The London Blitz. And....The first day of Jr. High.

"The Diary of a Wimpy Kid," like a disturbingly frank documentary, covers the most harrowing of what life can throw at a kid: sadistic P.E. teachers, school musicals, and (I shudder as I write this) the Jr. High cafeteria. In this faithful adaptation of the popular book of the same title, opening March 19, Greg Heffley (Zachary Gordon) is a skinny, scrawny boy eager to make a glorious place for himself in his new school. He thinks his best friend, Rowley, a goofy, earnest, not-quite-developed boy, might be a liability. He knows that being seen with weird kid Fregley would be social suicide.

He just wants people to recognize him for the cool, hip, future millionaire he knows he is.

Greg makes several attempts at distinguishing himself: wrestling, safety patrol, even being a tree in a misguided production of "The Wizard of Oz." They all end in humiliation while earnest Rowley breezes through, cavalierly being himself and becoming the toast of the 6th grade.

The destiny of both boys rests on a moldy, greasy, abandoned piece of cheese lurking on the playground. To stray too near this cheese results in "cheese touch," a form of super-cooties so potent that it can send even well-liked kids into social oblivion.

As teachers, guidance counselors, and parents insist on reminding kids, Jr. High isn't about being popular. It's about starting to know the type of person you will become. For Greg Heffley, that question centers around whether he will use others for his own agenda of self-promotion or learn to be a good friend.

There's a lot of heart in this movie because what Greg Heffley decides to do matters. His betrayals are painful, his redemption real.

Kids won't realize they're learning a valuable lesson on friendship and redemption, however. They'll be too busy laughing at Greg's mishaps to notice. The movie is funny, very funny. It benefits from great casting. Zachary Gordon's Greg Heffley echoes the likability of Henry Thomas as Elliott in E.T. or Fred Savage in The Wonder Years. Robert Capon as Rowley is wonderfully unconscious of himself and gleefully sincere. And Fregley (Grayson Russell) is perfect as the red-headed kid who will probably turn out a rich computer engineer, but in the sixth grade is definitely, decidedly...weird.

This film is rated PG for some rude humor and language. The language is those words your mom doesn't like you to say, but don't really qualify as swear words either. There is a storyline involving a girlie magazine Greg's brother has stashed in his room. It's toned down for the movie, about bikini-clad girls on motorcycles, and not particularly focused on, but adults know that the reference is something more. It's treated as a bad thing in the film.

It all adds up to a movie that will feel very real to those in Jr. High or those who remember Jr. High, just as the book does. So much so that word on the playground is that "cheese touch" is now a real, official, kid thing. They sometimes play "cheese touch" tag. If that's not striking a chord in the middle school set, I don't know what is.