Diary Of A Wimpy Kid

Zachary Gordon stars as Greg Heffley - a young kid entering middle school with plans to be one of the cool kids. Along the way, he has to navigate the childhood dangers of nefarious cheese, no doors on the bathroom stalls, where to sit at lunch time, and the hazing by older kids. Luckily, he has his best friend, Rowley (Robert Capron), to suffer along with him, until their fortunes change and one finds himself climbing the social ladder, leaving the other behind.

Can Greg and Rowley still be friends?

What's more important, being yourself or being popular?

Diary Of A Wimpy Kid explores many of the same themes you typically find in a kids movie, along with some potty humor, some booger comedy, a drug joke you hope your children won't get and some attempts to lift up the drama youngsters face to mythological levels. However, this movie also tosses in some very weird parallels to a romantic comedy, which adults will see immediately, even if the kids don't understand what is going on.

Normally, I would celebrate a movie that finds ways to entertain on a kid level and an adult level, but these people have gone a bit too far. Director Thor Freudenthal shows a teen rock band emerging from a smoke filled van (Are these guys the Scooby Gang?), and shows the kids building a snowman with a twig placed just right, so it looks like he is relieving himself. Gross stuff for sure, but one plot twist just felt weird.

The oddest storyline shows Rowley and Greg breaking up like a boyfriend and girlfriend complete with scenes of one friend trying to retrieve his property from the other friend's home, painful glances from across the room and one of them moving on to a new (boy)friend. It feels a bit icky to see 6th graders going through that bit of hilarity (6th grade is about puppy love not the stuff you encounter in an adult relationship, like the time I mailed a vacuum cleaner back to a woman, so I wouldn't have to see her again), and the kids who go see the movie aren't going to get it, so what's the point?

On the other hand, Diary Of A Wimpy Kid has some good themes to it. It is funny to watch Greg's constant attempts at being cool blow up in his face, while buddy Rowley shows the best way to be cool is to be yourself (I know. I know. I know. That doesn't work in the real world, but let's have kids believe this stuff at least until they get to high school, or until they can afford plastic surgery to make themselves more attractive). Plus, fans of the original book will appreciate the inclusion of illustrations throughout the movie to help give us a feel for where we are in the story and to make allusions to the original material by Jeff Kinney.

Not much will shock kids, especially those who have read the books, but I have to think there are better choices out there.

Diary Of A Wimpy Kid is rated PG for some rude humor and language.