College is often regarded as the place for self reinvention, but try as he might, Charlie Banks just can't make the past go away.

A coming-of-age story set in the 1980s, The Education of Charlie Banks involves two very different young men. Charlie (Jesse Eisenberg), who narrates some of the movie, is a middle-class kid growing up in New York. The 'boogie man' in his life is Mick Leary (Jason Ritter), a tough but popular kid from Greenwich Village who's quick with his fists. As teenagers, the boys have mutual friends and end up at the same party, and Charlie is horrified when Mick beats up two other teens.

Charlie is genuinely afraid of Mick. He goes out of his way to avoid him.

Time passes. Charlie and his friend Danny (Chris Marquette) end up as roommates at a posh, unnamed Ivy League college. (It's Brown, in Rhode Island.) Danny was fairly friendly with the terrifying Mick when the boys were all younger, but even he is surprised when Danny suddenly turns up at the dorm. It's been years since any of the guys have seen one another.

Charlie, of course, is stunned at this turn of events. He was sure he'd never see Mick again, and fears his old nemesis might be out for revenge.

But Mick has bigger fish to fry. Determined to fit in on campus, Mick begins to dress like his preppie friends, audit their lectures, attend their parties and flirt with their women. He romances Mary (Eva Amurri), the woman Charlie adores, and despite his rough edges, Mick begins to flourish. Charlie realizes he's no longer afraid of Mick.

Has the leopard changed his spots?

The Education of Charlie Banks is easy to watch, particularly thanks to the superb performance from Jason Ritter as the volatile, charming Mick. But the storytelling is smallscreen calibre, with everything on the surface. When Charlie starts talking about the symbolism in The Great Gatsby and when Mick confesses it's the first book he ever read cover-to-cover, you can feel the bruises where you're being hit over the head.

Still, The Education of Charlie Banks is watchable, and some of the dialogue about academic life is terrific.

Fred Durst, who made his feature directorial debut with this film, gets a lot out of his actors. (If we mention Limp Bizkit, will Billy Bob Thornton yell at us?)

The performances are far from perfect, but they're engaging. You can feel Mick's yearning for the beautiful life he's stumbled into at the university, and there's a whiff of hope for his character that's heartbreaking.

It's just a shame the story wasn't handled as a simple memoir, rather than some sort of cautionary tale. There's a rich-boy/poor-boy conflict in the story that gets tossed around but never really investigated; inadvertently or otherwise, the Mick character is far more interesting than the Charlie Banks character.

Mind you, Charlie is the one who gets that education. Outside of its hasty and heavy-handed ending, The Education of Charlie Banks gets a passing grade.

(This film is rated 14A)
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