Although he isn't the star of the movie, there is no denying that Zach Galifianakis is likely the biggest draw in this flim. I think there is a presumption that everything he is in will be a comedy but he is actually a pretty excellent dramatic actor as well. While he, and most everyone else in the movie delivers a great performance, overall the movie just kind of drags.
The plot is delivered in the first 4 minutes of the film, so this shouldn't be considered a spoiler: Craig (lead character; played by Keir Gilchrist ) is a stressed-out and depressed teen who is contemplating suicide and therefore checks himself into the psychiatric ward of the hospital. He quickly realizes that there are some people in the psych ward with what he considers to be far more severe psychological issues than he has and tries to check himself out.... but that isn't how psychiatric wards work. He is forced to stay for 5 days.
Craig quickly assembles a group of pals, many of which were also suicidal to a much more extreme degree than he is and they all seem to help one another with their mutual situation. One kind of hokey aspect is that the eventual love-interest of Noelle (Emma Roberts ) is telegraphed really early on and it becomes evident that this is going to be the main part of the story.
While the movie really showcases the acting skill of Galifianakis, this movie unfortunately is just quite slow-moving and boring. It is also very predictable. I think that once Craig is admitted and you meet the group of pals that he acquires (including his roommate) you could pause the film (around 15 minutes in) and probably correctly guess all of the major character events that were going to happen in the entire film.
official trailer from eOnefilms
In a tragic and ironic twist, Ned Vizzini, the person who wrote the semi-autobiographical best-selling book that this film is based on, committed suicide 3 years after this movie was released. He was successful and had plenty of money at the time - it's just another one of those stories about how success doesn't necessarily equal happiness.
Despite the tragic real-life ending to this blog, I can't really recommend anyone watch this film. It has a great cast and the story has its moments, but mostly it is a pretty stock-standard film that simply isn't terribly entertaining outside of a few moments.