Prep-school washout charms the hoi polloi

With a flip of the detention slip to

Rushmore

and

Ferris Bueller's Day Off

, the high school comedy

Charlie Bartlett

brings a bit of realism - kids on drugs, kids smoking, kids having sex - that doesn't usually make the grade in the genre of addled adolescent angst.

The story of a brainy rich kid (Anton Yelchin) who gets kicked out of the last accommodating preparatory academy and has to go slumming at the local public high,

Charlie Bartlett

was originally set to open last summer - there were even posters and TV spots before it was yanked for fear of getting lost. Whether it will find a more receptive - or bigger - crowd in the cold days of February is anyone's guess, but there's lots to like, even if Gustin Nash's script isn't the most original.

Yelchin's pampered, puppy-ish Charlie is wise beyond his years - and he is a wiseguy who finds a chilly reception when he first arrives at his new school. He gets pummeled in the boys' room, shunned in the cafeteria, but the optimistic, ironic Charlie endeavors to make friends - and with the help of his family psychiatrist's prescription pad, he does. Charlie starts counseling his fellow students, offering advice on how to cope with feelings of anxiety and alienation, depression and sexual confusion - and offering the accordant therapeutic meds, too.

Charlie Bartlett

, directed by veteran editor Jon Poll, is nicely cast: Hope Davis plays Charlie's divorced-from-reality mom with a droll, deadpan touch, and Robert Downey Jr. brings a somewhat disquieting sense of authenticity to his role as the principal with his own substance-abuse issues. Tyler Hilton is the punked-out school bully, and Philadelphian Kat Dennings is quietly charismatic as Susan Gardner, the bright, beaming classmate that Charlie takes a liking to - and visa versa. However, their relationship, full of smart chatter and offbeat romantic moments, is complicated by the fact that Susan's dad is Charlie's nemesis: Downey's Principal Gardner.

With its rebellious themes and pharmaceutical props - Ritalin, Prozac, Xanax all get doled out -

Charlie Bartlett

isn't going to win any awards from parent-teacher groups. But the underlying message of the film, with its nods to

Catcher in the Rye

and - '70s throwback here -

Harold and Maude

, is a good one: empathy and compassion, communication and friendship, have more to do with emotional growth than does striking cool poses on the high school steps.

One of

Charlie Bartlett's

executive producers is Bruce Toll, chairman of Philadelphia Media Holdings L.L.C., which owns The Inquirer, the Philadelphia Daily News and Philly.com.

Directed by Jon Poll. With Anton Yelchin, Hope Davis, Kat Dennings, Robert Downey Jr. and Tyler Hilton. Distributed by MGM Films.

Running time:

1 hour, 37 mins.

Parent's guide:

R (drugs, alcohol, profanity, sex, adult themes)

Playing at:

area theaters