'Diary of a Wimpy Kid' fails to live up to source material

Director: Thor Freudenthal

Cast: Zachary Gordon, Rachel Harris, Robert Capron

A live actioner based on a popular (with teens) illustrated novel featuring Gordon as Geoff Heffley, a lad suddenly faced with the perils and pitfalls of Middle School, that curious Stateside institution where gross-out embarrassments and humiliations come in a ghastly non-stop stream.

Geoff, both encouraged and hampered by an on-off friendship with Rowley (Capron), tries to fit in, mainly by launching a series of doomed-to-failure schemes and scams, which he records in his diary.

All of which, had the film followed more closely the inventive and witty original, would have made for a film full of insight and understanding about fitting in and coming to terms with a life-changing experience … but the promise isn’t fulfilled, in spite of solid acting by Gordon as the hapless victim of his own incompetent ambition not to be the perpetual outsider.

Star Rating: 2/5