Film review: ‘The Art of Getting By’ starring Freddie Highmore & Emma Roberts

‘The Art of Getting By‘ is the story about George (Freddie Highmore) who lives his life only thinking about death basically, finding in ordinary things that people do like going to school as nonsense, knowing that death will be waiting for him at the end of the road. George is a troubled teenager, spends most of his time depressed and doesn’t see the point of being alive, he has been living this way since he was a kid all the way up until his senior year of high school, that is until he becomes friends with Sally (Emma Roberts)

The story is about George and why he focuses so much in knowing that death will strike him once, George spends most of his days wondering why bother about school or work when everything will end eventually and none of the time invested in either thing will be worth it. George is the epitome of slacker at his prep school in New York City. Even the principal at his school, Mr Martinson (Blair Underwood) as well as every other teacher in the school and classmates know about George’s refusal of doing any assigned work. This is, until we meet Sally, who is the only person who has ever showed some kind of interest in not only becoming George’s friend, but getting to know him and why he acts the way he does. Sally, being the typical girl who is outgoing and is not ashamed to introduce George to her friends and invite him to parties, to her house to meet her mom (Elizabeth Reaser) etc.

The movie was good, I’m telling you right now if it wasn’t because of the screening I wouldn’t have thought about seeing it, maybe rent it sometime in the future. I really liked the message that it gave at the end, even though in the end we don’t get any closure per se, but there’s this theme of ‘everything is possible’. Freddie Highmore is just adorable, and in my opinion as the film progresses you get to see why his character acts the way he does and why people like Sally change his life forever. At times the movie was predictable, but it didn’t  make it less enjoyable. The relationship between everyone George basically meets is rather awkward and supposed to be that way, so you’ll find yourself laughing at some points where situations where really uncomfortable. Emma Roberts’ character of Sally was likeable, and you could see how she would bring out the best of George.  Some other characters that appear in the movie are Alicia Silverstone (I know, shocker!) as one of George’s teachers, Dustin (Michael Angarano) who is an alumni from George and Sally’s prep school and is now a painter, he becomes some sort of mentor and friend to George by teaching him about art.

‘The Art of Getting By’ is an awkwardly-clever-cute movie, quote me on that if you must. If  you’re up to spend your $10, go ahead do it. If not I suggest wait for the DVD.

‘The Art of Getting By’ will be released this Friday, June 17th.