Review: The Art of Getting By (12A) ***

Admittedly, the plot is predictable, but what The Art of Getting By lacks in originality, it makes up for in sincerity and bittersweet charm.

Fatalistic high school student George Zinavoy (Freddie Highmore) doesn’t see any point in completing class assignments and the socially awkward loner is on the verge of failing to graduate. When his mother Vivian (Rita Wilson) and step-father Jack (Sam Robards) discover he is on academic probation, George convinces them as well that there is no need to worry. He just needs to apply himself.

By chance, George crosses paths with Sally (Emma Roberts) and he takes the blame and the punishment for her transgression during school hours. In return, she introduces George to a world of parties and bright lights he never knew existed.

He also finds a mentor for his artistic endeavours in painter Dustin (Michael Angarano) – a school alumnus, who is immediately taken with Sally. The Art of Getting By is a charming and moving portrait of growing pains, distinguished by a compelling lead performance from Highmore as a boy on the cusp of manhood. The actor doesn’t strike one false note getting beneath the skin of his disenfranchised and painfully lonely misfit.

He looks awkward in his own company and anguish ripples across his face when Sally diffuses any possible sexual tension by telling George up front, “You’re my only real friend. Let’s not ruin it.”

Angarano and Underwood offer solid support as mentors, who either disappoint George or provide him with a shocking ultimatum to shake him out of the fug.

The stuttering romance with Roberts carouses us between smiles and tears, and crucially, Wiesen draws together the narrative threads without resorting too readily to hoary cliches and sickly sentiment.

His first film doesn’t just “get by” – it courts and steadily wins our affections.