The Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Movie Review

The Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Movie Review

The Diary of A Wimpy Kid
Rating: 4/10
Cast: Zachary Gordon, Robert Capron, Steve Zahn
Director: Thor Freudenthal
From a popular cartoon pencil drawn book comes Diary of A Wimpy Kid.
Gordon plays Greg Heffley, an American kid who's about to go to middle school - and he's convinced he's a big fish in a small pond and that he'll be okay.
You see Heffley's got the world sussed out - and reckons his place in it is fairly safe and assured.
Not so much for his best friend since like forever the portly Rowley Jeffesron (Capron) who's likely to pull Greg's social standing all the way down.
Soon, wise-cracking Greg's facing choices he never thought he'd have to make - and consequences for friendships and his personal life.
Diary of A Wimpy Kid is one for the younger end of the audience - complete with jokes about urinating and cooties, it's clearly pitched at the under 10s - and that's fine.
But anyone older or adult in the audience may find it somewhat difficult to sit through - despite some nice moments which see some of the original drawings the film's based on coming to life.
Sure, there's plenty for kids to get their heads around here - be it social standing in school, morals, messages about never turning your back on your friends just to be the cool kid.
Thankfully the child actors acquit themselves well - Zachary Gordon does well with the cocky kid approach and Capron's stand out as the long term buddy Rowley who stands to miss out when his friend loses touch with reality.

But The Diary of A Wimpy Kid is simply too narrow a film to appeal to a broad family audience at a time of year when school holidays are here - and plenty of movies are clamouring for the family dollar.