3 stars = Good
Ratings explained

Ferris Bueller just took one day off. Charlie Bartlett takes every day off in the therapeutic teen-angst comedy that bears his name.

To the glorious ranks of rich-kid rebels comes Charlie (Anton Yelchin), a good-hearted con artist expelled from every expensive private academy he ever attended. Now reduced to public school, he finds himself learning how to win friends and influence peers -- through pharmaceutical as well personal chemistry.

In the best American enterprise tradition, Charlie sets up shop as an uncertified shrink in the boys' bathroom. With a stall as his confessional, he dispenses not just absolution and advice but potent pills obtained from his own psychiatrist.

Charlie's popularity (not to mention local Ritalin sales) soar, but he takes his psychiatric drug-dealership seriously. Need Prozac or Wellbutrin? Zoloft or Xanax? He does his research, gets you the right meds for your panic attack or your anger management. Bogus but benign, his practice takes off, with positive behavioral results schoolwide.

At home, Charlie cons and charms his way out of trouble with his adoring mom (Hope Davis), who looks like Hillary Clinton. At school, he falls in love with sexy Susan (Kat Dennings). But she is the young and restless daughter of the principal (Robert Downey Jr.), a boozy bureaucrat who is hot on Charlie's delinquent trail.

Young Yelchin -- the son of two Russian figure skaters! -- deftly straddles the comedy and drama of his title role, much aided by that charismatic old devil Downey in their verbal showdowns.

Actor-musician Tyler Hilton (young Elvis in "Walk the Line") is a fine school bully who becomes Charlie's unlikely business partner.

The directorial debut of film editor Jon Poll ("Meet the Parents"), "Charlie Bartlett" is as charming as its smart but over-the-top script allows it to be, dispensing as many doses of wisdom as controlled substances along the way.