The title character in "Charlie Bartlett" is a rich kid who has everything except what he and every other teen wants the most: popularity.

He quickly achieves it, and in the process learns a little something about growing up.

Obviously, "Charlie Bartlett" won't win this year's prize for most original teen movie plot. Nor will Gustin Nash's screenplay win a prize for consistency, as it bounces indecisively among teen comedy, drama, message movie and other genres.

As the story opens, Charlie is being thrown out of yet another prep school for rebellious behavior -- in this case, manufacturing bogus driver's licenses for grateful classmates. As a last resort, his mom sends him to a public high school. When he shows up in blazer and tie, most of the other students titter. The exception is the school bully, Murph, who beats him up instead.

Ever resourceful, Charlie quickly deduces that his fellow students are typically angst-ridden adolescents who need 1) someone to talk to, and 2) more drugs.

He sets up a freelance psychiatric practice in a boys room stall. Seated in the adjoining stall, kids confess their most intimate problems. They're rewarded with helpings of sensible advice from a peer plus side orders of Ritalin, Prozac and Xanax that Charlie cons out of the town's shrinks and sells to his teenage clients.

In no time, Charlie's the most popular kid in school.

His one problem, once Murph has been cleverly neutralized, is the school principal. Mr. Gardner is a problem because he hates his job, he's an unpredictable drunk and he's scared to death that Charlie is going to seduce his daughter. Ironically, it's from Gardner that Charlie learns that popularity isn't all it's cracked up to be, that personal responsibility is much preferable to hero worship.

Most of the performances, including Anton Yelchin's as Charlie, are as unremarkable as the consistently under-developed characters. One exception is Hope Davis as Charlie's oblivious and over-medicated mom. Tyler Hilton manages to temper Murph's air of menace with a suggestion of depth. And Robert Downey Jr. applies his usual sharp edge to the character of Gardner, the principal. His scenes would be memorable if they weren't in such a forgettable movie.