The tweener bestseller “Diary of a Wimpy Kid’’ is a gimmick book but an inspired one: A fake diary — blue lines, blocky handwriting and all — written from the point of view of a sixth-grader desperate to fit in. Greg Heffley’s an everykid who makes bad choices and to whom bad things keep happening, and that’s just another day in cinderblock hell. What makes the book special are the line drawings, ostensibly by Greg but really by author Jeff Kinney: deft, funny cartoons of thuggish big brothers, blockhead best friends, and bug-eyed class freaks. “Diary of a Wimpy Kid’’ the book is “Malcolm in the Middle’’ boiled down to a brilliant doodle. 
 
 “Diary of a Wimpy Kid’’ the movie returns Kinney’s tale to live-action reality, and the party’s over. It starts brightly enough: Greg (Zachary Gordon) heads out for the first day of school contending with a punk-wannabe brother (Devon Bostick), spudlike baby brother (Connor and Owen Fielding), doofus dad (Steve Zahn with wild eyes and a roll-on tan), and brisk mother (Rachael Harris, the termagant of “The Hangover’’). All he wants is to stand out in the Darwinian scrum that is middle school, and all that’s holding him back is his longtime best friend, Rowley (Robert Capron), a blissfully naive fatty. Rowley rides a girl’s bike. 
 
 Directed by Thor Freudenthal (“Hotel for Dogs’’), “Diary’’ includes a few wry, Jean Shepherdesque observations of schoolyard mythology, like the stinky cheese slice that has lain on the outdoor basketball court for months, socially contaminating anyone foolish enough to touch it. Other aspects ring false: What actual middle school hosts a mother-son dance? That’s just asking for trouble. 
 
 The movie’s bigger problem is that its live-action Greg Heffley is a jerk. In his quest for instant fame, our hero treats his friend like dirt, trash-talks the school’s perfectly reasonable alt-girl (Chloë Moretz), ditches a group of kindergartners in a construction pit in the rain (and blames it on Rowley), and otherwise behaves like a little Hun. 
 
 I get it, I get it — redemption and life lessons await. But they’re awfully slow in coming and half-hearted when they appear, and by then we’ve lost patience. Not many young actors can get to us like an adolescent wiseass over the long haul; Matthew Broderick got away with it in “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off,’’ but just barely. Gordon is not Broderick. 
 
 The upshot is that everyone at school prefers the guileless, optimistic Rowley, and a half hour in, so do we. Remember that friend your parents said was a “bad influence’’ and tried to keep you away from until you realized they were right? “Diary of a Wimpy Kid’’ is about him. Maybe there’s an interesting drama there, but as a family comedy, it’s a tough sell. 
 
 Every now and then, the movie reverts to the anarchic line drawings of the book and you breathe a sigh of relief. They’re funny and they capture the way being 12 can look like an over-exaggerated black-and-white farce. “Diary’’ probably should have been handed over to a maverick animator like Marjane Satrapi of “Persepolis’’ or — here’s a novel idea — Kinney himself. 
 
 Of the live actors, only Grayson Russell as uber-nerd Fregley comes close to being that sort of human cartoon (he practically has an exclamation point visible over his head). The others are stuck in tween-movie limboland, neither character nor caricature. “Diary of a Wimpy Kid’’ is a movie that needs to go back to the drawing board — literally. 
 
 Ty Burr can be reached at tburr@globe.com. For more on movies, go to www.boston.com/movienation. 
 
 © Copyright 2010 Globe Newspaper Company. 

 Diary of a Wimpy Kid 
 
 March 17, 2010 
 
 Cast & Credits Greg Zachary Gordon 
 
 Rowley Robert Capron 
 
 Angie Chloe Moretz 
 
 Mrs. Heffley Rachael Harris 
 
 Mr. Heffley Steve Zahn 
 
 Rodrick Devon Bostick 
 
 Chirag Gupta Karan Brar 
 
 Fregley Grayson Russell 
 
 Colin Alex Ferris 
 
 
 
 20th Century Fox presents a film directed by Thor Freudenthal. Written by Jackie and Jeff Filgo, based on the books by Jeff Kinney. Running time: 92 minutes. Rated PG (for some rude humor and language). 
 
 
 
 Printer-friendly » 
 
 E-mail this to a friend » 
 
 It is so hard to do a movie like this well. "Diary of a Wimpy Kid" is a PG-rated comedy about the hero's first year of middle school, and it's nimble, bright and funny. It doesn't dumb down. It doesn't patronize. It knows something about human nature. It isn't as good as "A Christmas Story," as few movies are, but it deserves a place in the same sentence. Here is a family movie you don't need a family to enjoy. You must, however, have been a wimpy kid. Most kids are wimpy in their secret hearts. Those that never were grow up to be cage fighters. 
 
 Greg Heffley isn't the shortest student in his class. That would be Chirag Gupta. Greg (Zachary Gordon) is only the second shortest. He's at that crucial age when everybody else has started to grow. There's a funny slide show illustrating how his class looked in sixth grade, and how they look now -- some with mustaches. The girls of course are taller than the boys. 
 
 
 
 The onset of adolescence is an awkward age, made marginally easier for Greg because he still hasn't developed an interest in girls. Even his best friend Rowley (Robert Capron) is flattered to be noticed by a girl, and Rowley is so out of it, he thinks that at his age kids still "play," when, as we all know, they "hang." 
 
 
 
 The girl who notices Greg and Rowley is Angie (Chloe Moretz), who seems wise beyond her years. We first see her under the bleachers, reading Howl by Allen Ginsberg. Keep your eye on her in high school. She looks way older than her two new friends, but I checked, and Moretz was only 12 when she made the movie. 
 
 
 
 In middle school, we find cliques, cruelty and bullying. The pack is poised to pounce. "Diary" is especially funny about a slice of Swiss cheese that was dropped on a playground sometime in the distant past and has grown an alarming coating of mold. Some kid poked it once, and all the other kids avoided him like the plague. He had the dreaded Cheese Touch. He only got rid of it by touching another kid. Then that kid had the Touch, until -- and so on. The cheese nicely symbolizes the hunger kids have for an excuse, any excuse, to make other kids pariahs. Remember what happened to anyone who wore green on a Thursday? 
 
 
 
 Where do they find these actors? They come up on TV, I guess. Chloe Moretz has been acting since she was 7. Zachary Gordon has the confidence and timing of an old pro; he plays wimpy as if it's a desirable character trait. Robert Capron, as his pudgy best friend Rowley, pulls off the tricky fear of being an inch or two taller than Greg, and yet still childish; wait until you see his Halloween costume. Greg's parents (Rachael Harris and Steve Zahn) aren't major characters, because what happens in school consumes all of Greg's psychic energy. His older brother Rodrick (Devon Bostick) is of course a sadistic teaser who makes life miserable. But at that age, so it goes. 
 
 
 
 The movie is inspired by the books of Jeff Kinney, and the titles reproduce his hand-lettering and drawing style. The movie reproduces his charm. The director, Thor Freudenthal, made "Hotel for Dogs" (2009), received affectionately in some circles, but this time, his touch is more sure and his humor more sunny. 

 Enlarge By Rob McEwan, 20th Century Fox The wrestling team runts: Best friends Rowley (Robert Capron, third from left) and Greg (Zachary Gordon) in the lineup. ABOUT THE MOVIE ABOUT THE MOVIE Diary of a Wimpy Kid 
 
 * * 1/2 (out of four) 
 
 Stars: Zachary Gordon, Robert Capron, Steve Zahn, Devon Bostick, Rachael Harris, Chloe Grace Moretz, Grayson Russell 
 
 Director: Thor Freudenthal 
 
 Distributor: Fox 2000 
 
 Rating: PG for some rude humor and language 
 
 Running time: 1 hour, 30 minutes 
 
 Opens Friday nationwide There's nothing adorable about middle school. It's an awkward way station between innocent childhood and turbulent teen years. IN DEPTH: This 'Wimpy Kid' was made, not born Based on the best-selling 2007 novel by Jeff Kinney, Diary of a Wimpy Kid is an appealing family movie that humorously chronicles that in-between period from the perspective of a smallish kid named Greg (Zachary Gordon), who longs to achieve status and popularity. Though the movie does indulge in some kid-friendly gross-out jokes, at least they're kept to a bearable minimum. Greg is a middle kid all around. His toddler brother, Manny, gets all the attention, while his taunting and cool teenage brother, Rodrick (Devon Bostick), has all the fun. Happily, his parents (Steve Zahn and Rachael Harris) are not the usual clueless types; they advise and often connect with Greg. But life at school is another story. Greg is a blend of insecure, cocky, shy, kind and self-absorbed. In other words, he seems like a real kid. Gordon strikes all the right notes, likable even when bursting with bravado or insolence. Greg is terrorized by Patty (Laine MacNeil), a grudge-bearing fiend in braids, and mocked by the popular older boys when the equally small, but feisty, Fregley (Grayson Russell) beats him in wrestling. Chloe Grace Moretz, who played Joseph Gordon-Levitt's little sister in (500)Days of Summer, adds a measure of acerbic wit as Angie, who ruefully watches Greg's stumbling efforts, tossing off the movie's best lines as a wise-beyond-her-years middle-schooler. Greg has chutzpah to burn, but he worries about his best buddy, Rowley (Robert Capron), who still invites him to "play" — instead of "hang out"— and isn't embarrassed to come to school wearing a colorful serape from his family vacation to Guatemala. There's something silly-sweet about this movie. It avoids talking down to kids or being didactic, while still projecting an overall wholesomeness. Director Thor Freudenthal (Hotel for Dogs) has a wise sense of pacing and knows how to draw believable young performances, mixing up sassy humor with naïveté. He has effectively adapted Kinney's work and added his own stylistic touches. In an entry in his diary, which he insists is actually a journal, Greg muses: "Who wants to see a movie about a kid who's stuck in middle school with a bunch of morons?" Thanks to an endearing cast of characters and an energetic, if light, comic story, we do. Guidelines: You share in the USA TODAY community, so please keep your comments smart and civil. Don't attack other readers personally, and keep your language decent. Use the "Report Abuse" button to make a difference. You share in the USA TODAY community, so please keep your comments smart and civil. Don't attack other readers personally, and keep your language decent. Use the "Report Abuse" button to make a difference. Read more
– Diary of a Wimpy Kid is like your average middle schooler—loved by some, hated by others. Reviews, in short, are mixed. Here’s what critics are saying: “It is so hard to do a movie like this well,” but Diary of a Wimpy Kid pulls it off, raves Roger Ebert in the Chicago Sun-Times. “It's nimble, bright and funny. It doesn't dumb down. It doesn’t patronize.” It even deserves mention alongside the glorious A Christmas Story. “But to anyone who’s seen even an evening of kids’ TV over the last decade,” this will look awfully familiar, writes Stephen Whitty of the Star-Ledger. It’s fine, but why spend money on this instead of watching Nickelodeon? “Diary of a Wimpy Kid is a movie that needs to go back to the drawing board — literally,” says Ty Burr of the Boston Globe. The source books and their doodle artwork were charming, but “live-action Greg Heffley is a jerk.” “Greg “seems like a real kid,” Claudia Puig writes in USA Today, Star Zachary Gordon makes him “likable even when bursting with bravado or insolence.” The result? A “silly-sweet” movie that’s worth seeing.