The film was set to be made, but then the question was who it will be made for. "It's the marketing dilemma for the movie. It's interesting because I always intended making a movie for teenagers, people with teenagers, and people who were teenagers. I hope that it plays fairly universal to people. We have to market a movie to young people and [the studio] is having to sell it and they're doing a good job with it even though it's tricky." Gustin Nash, the screenwriter who wrote every line in the film (something very rare in Hollywood), wanted a film that "teenagers didn't think is stupid and wasn't talking down to them."
In order to not "talk down" to teenagers, Nash introduced the entire concept of prescription drugs into the film, which plays a pivotal theme in the entire movie. A long line of kids line up to get an appointment with Charlie Bartlett, who is the school's self-appointed psychiatrist. He fakes mental illnesses to his own psychiatrists to get drugs for the kids in the school and increase his own popularity. Yet, "the movie is not intended to be an indictment of drugs," explains Poll. "One of my favorite scenes is where Robert Downey, Jr. tells Charlie that 'Look, these drugs help a lot of people.' My problem is when you take a kid who is playing a bunch of video games and eating sugar and you give them Ritalin because they are hopped up. This is a comedic part of the movie. I was concerned that psychiatrists and therapists would think we're treating them badly, but the response I've gotten is that Charlie is a pretty good listener."
Charlie's ability to listen to his peers is the central theme of the movie. Although the drugs do help certain people, the main problem with teenagers is that they need to be listened to, and no one is listening to them. "I liked Charlie Bartlett in the fact that despite it's a film about high school popularity, it's about someone who needs to listen to [Charlie] and is busy listening to other people."
Spring Break
