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The wonderfully refreshing thing about Thor Freudenthal’s Diary of A Wimpy Kid is it that it knows exactly where it wants to go, and taps all the right emotions on its journey. That is, of course, the exact opposite of the middle school experience, where no one knows where they are going, and waiting breeds anxiety.

This movie understands just how wacky the microcosm of middle school can get, and I can think of no higher praise than this; kids between 11and 13 should connect with it completely. The performances, the direction, and the witty script, based on the book by Jeff Kinney, take the sixth grade experience and flatten and exaggerate it to the point that it perfectly imitates the headspace of a pre-teen.

Zachary Gordon does a nice job as Greg Heffly, a shrimp of a kid whose entrance into middle school is filled with anxiety and hope; anxiety that his child-like friend Rowley will embarrass him, and hope that he might ascend the ladder of popularity at school. Along the way he contends with his pestering big brother, bemused parents, a hyperactive redhead who lives down the street, while doing his best to keep Rowley close as a friend while distancing him socially. He’s also harassed and beguiled by Chloe Moretz as the mysterious girl under the bleachers.

Gordon as Heffly is plucky and sincere, but also a bit annoying, and I’m pretty sure that’s right on point. His approach makes Heffly slightly less sympathetic than the books’ protagonist, and I appreciated that added layer to Fruedenthal’s film. What I do remember about middle school is that in addition to it being a swirling vortex of hormones and insecurity, it was also infinitely easy to behave like a jerk in the face of ‘good intentions.’ Heffly is the hero, but only in his own mind. The real star and smiling surprise of Wimpy Kid is his friend, the overweight but staggeringly optimistic Rowley Jefferson, played pleasingly by Robert Capron.

Rowley looks like a social misfit from day one, and that isn’t just a one glance assumption. He shows up to homeroom dressed like a Mexican peasant, plays ventriloquist with his belly button, and at the end of day, makes the cosmic error of asking Greg if he wants to “come over and play” in front of a crowd. Greg diagnoses him as a kid who hasn’t grown up appropriately, but what looks more awkward than Rowley’s comfort with his own quirkiness is Greg’s unending quest to fit in. Even when he finds he is good at something –he delivers a lovely rendition of ‘Total Eclipse of the Heart’– he’s still off in his timing. The play he auditions for is Wizard of Oz, and his voice too high to play anyone other than Dorothy.

In a nice reversal, the film allows Rowley to grow and flourish in middle school. He’s weird and pitiable to begin with, but his fearlessness and sincerity is infectious, and when he starts writing the school comic, the other kids gravitate towards his easy, likable nature. So does the audience. The strength of Capron’s performance is that you can see how lucky Greg really is to have a friend like Rowley. So good natured is he, that he gladly rides a big wheel down a hill just so Greg can throw footballs at his head…repeatedly. A late-in-the-game dance scene features Rowley and his mother break dancing to Beastie Boys. I’d roll my eyes in another movie, but here it works completely.

Fruedenthal’s take on Wimpy Kid may seem simplistic and overly obvious–at points it has all the visual dexterity of a Disney Channel special– but it paints this odd time in a kid’s life in bold, strong colors and it has the potential to resonate both with children and their parents. There are tons of great gags that should please audiences of all ages. My favorite involves a piece of moldy playground cheese that follows the rule that if you show a gun in act 1, it needs to be used by act 3.

Wimpy Kid is a great movie for the audience it’s aiming for. If you aren’t beyond recalling your own middle school days, it might be a great movie for you too. For me, there was something poignantly truthful in recalling how easy they really were and how hard and uncertain they seemed at the time. Makes one wish for a guy like Rowley to help you through.

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