This film is a lot of popular saying mashed together, like "the flame that burns twice as bright, lasts half as long," "it's better to have loved and lost, than never have loved at all," "with great power comes great responsibility..." And "no means no!"
"Charly" has mental issues, with an IQ below 60 points. He realises that people pick on him because of that, but his mental capacities are too "limited" for him to actually grasp the full meaning of it, so he just smiles and goes on, until the day he's offered to undergo a surgical procedure to enhance his brain power, maybe to genius levels.
He accepts the proposal, obviously, for plot's sake, and, even more obviously, the procedure works and he gets the advertised superbrain. After that, the film takes a weird path, one that leads to him falling in love with his teacher. With the mental age of a child, he doesn't know the difference between love and sexual attraction, and that quickly derails into an attempted rape, which is stopped the way most 1960-something films did, with her slapping him on the face.
After that, two things happen. First, we completely lose any sympathy for the protagonist. Second, he becomes a biker and goes on a spree of sex, drugs, bad music/dance, bad facial hair, bad clothes... Well, basically, bad everything.
Eventually, he goes back home and, plot twist, the teacher had been waiting for him! Apparently, "no" and a slap on the face didn't mean "no," it was more like "let's try the 'surprise sex' without the 'surprise' part some other time..." And so they engage in copulation for recreational purposes for a very long time... Which we find out, afterwards, to be just four weeks since he attacked her.
During the presentation of the research results to the scientific community, it's disclosed that Charly will soon revert to his previous intellectual levels, as the procedure had only temporary effects. He tries to use his superior brain power to find a solution to his problem, but all is in vain. Lastly, Charly asks the teacher to leave, like freeing a bird from its cage. The last scene shows the teacher going after Charly, who's playing with some kids in a playground, happily and oblivious. Credits roll.
Despite the final gesture of kindness from Charly, expelling the teacher from his life, I couldn't feel anything for him. Maybe this film was okay-ish for 1960-something standards, but it's not for today's, and never again, hopefully. The acting is very good, but the script is completely messed up on its final part, so the film is worth one watch and that's all.
"Charly" has mental issues, with an IQ below 60 points. He realises that people pick on him because of that, but his mental capacities are too "limited" for him to actually grasp the full meaning of it, so he just smiles and goes on, until the day he's offered to undergo a surgical procedure to enhance his brain power, maybe to genius levels.
He accepts the proposal, obviously, for plot's sake, and, even more obviously, the procedure works and he gets the advertised superbrain. After that, the film takes a weird path, one that leads to him falling in love with his teacher. With the mental age of a child, he doesn't know the difference between love and sexual attraction, and that quickly derails into an attempted rape, which is stopped the way most 1960-something films did, with her slapping him on the face.
After that, two things happen. First, we completely lose any sympathy for the protagonist. Second, he becomes a biker and goes on a spree of sex, drugs, bad music/dance, bad facial hair, bad clothes... Well, basically, bad everything.
Eventually, he goes back home and, plot twist, the teacher had been waiting for him! Apparently, "no" and a slap on the face didn't mean "no," it was more like "let's try the 'surprise sex' without the 'surprise' part some other time..." And so they engage in copulation for recreational purposes for a very long time... Which we find out, afterwards, to be just four weeks since he attacked her.
During the presentation of the research results to the scientific community, it's disclosed that Charly will soon revert to his previous intellectual levels, as the procedure had only temporary effects. He tries to use his superior brain power to find a solution to his problem, but all is in vain. Lastly, Charly asks the teacher to leave, like freeing a bird from its cage. The last scene shows the teacher going after Charly, who's playing with some kids in a playground, happily and oblivious. Credits roll.
Despite the final gesture of kindness from Charly, expelling the teacher from his life, I couldn't feel anything for him. Maybe this film was okay-ish for 1960-something standards, but it's not for today's, and never again, hopefully. The acting is very good, but the script is completely messed up on its final part, so the film is worth one watch and that's all.