Following a somewhat limited release in theaters late last year, The Perks of Being a Wallflower hits DVD/Blu-ray Tuesday, February 12.
The absolutely wonderful coming-of-age story directed by Stephen Chbosky, who also wrote the book, follows Charlie as he struggles to overcome deeply-rooted problems that’ve haunted him since age three. The film stars Logan Lerman as Charlie, Emma Watson as Sam, and Ezra Miller as Patrick.
Commentary
The only problem with the cast commentary is that there are so many people involved that sometimes it’s difficult to tell who’s speaking at certain points. Nonetheless, it’s a fun watch and listen.
Deleted scenes
Big fans of this movie will love the additional material. You can optionally watch the deleted scenes with commentary from Chbosky.
The first deleted scene is an entirely alternate opening: It is a flash forward to the end of the movie’s storyline. Explains Chbosky, “My idea was, ‘Would it be interesting to start the movie in the hospital and we can be asking ourselves the whole time, god what happened to that poor kid? And that would drive the mystery. Kinda like the novel provided the mystery of ‘Who’s the friend? Who’s he writing to?’ That was the concept anyway. At the end of the day, […] I felt like this wasn’t the way to open the film because you couldn’t recover tonally.”
Another deleted scene was one focusing on Candace’s pregnancy and abortion. “Those of you who know my novel knows that Candace gets pregnant, and there’s quite a long stretch of time when Charlie is there for his sister,” says the writer. “I found it incredibly moving in the book, and I found it moving to write it in this sequence. The one thing I believe about family is, even if you’re siblings and you don’t get along all the time, people show up” when problems happen. He goes on to explain why he cut the scene and raves about Nina Dobrev’s performance.
Chbosky explains he shot this scene to pay tribute to Dr. Earl Reum, the original author of the poem. Chbosky had thought the poem’s author was a kid who killed himself, but after tracking down its author he discovered it was a man who dedicated his life to making life better for kids. “He passed away a few years ago, and as a tribute to him I asked Logan to perform the poem because I wanted everyone to know the name Dr. Earl Reum.”
Dailies
One fun aspect of this DVD/Blu-ray which you don’t normally get on home entertainment releases are the dailies. In the industry, dailies are raw footage that the studio gets sent on a daily basis so they can see how the film is progressing.
There are three dailies included, and the best one is the raw footage of Sam (Emma Watson) standing on the back of the truck and heading through the iconic tunnel. Chbosky’s commentary is available here too. It’s a shot that lasts several minutes and is just beautiful from start to finish.
Overall
Fans of the book and film will love the home release of The Perks of Being a Wallflower. Author and director Stephen Chbosky’s close involvement with the special features offers great insight into the original book and the challenges of adapting for the big screen. The commentaries provide hours of additional entertainment. Plus, anyone who’s loved Chbosky’s story will appreciate having this ready for their television whenever they need a burst of inspiration.
Edit: The DVD and Blu-ray versions have the same special features, as listed above.
The Perks of Being a Wallflower is available on DVD/Blu-ray on February 12. Pre-order the DVD or pre-order the Blu-ray from Amazon!