Movies

July 10, 2009

Not in love with ‘Cooper’ review

ROGER MOORE The Orlando Sentinel

Oh, to have teenage kids just so I could forbid them to see “I Love You, Beth Cooper.”

A miscast and misjudged graduation-night comedy, “Cooper” occasionally — only occasionally — wanders into “harmless.” Much of the time it’s sending bad messages about, oh, driving without your lights on after dark, using sex to score beer and letting peer pressure determine your sexuality.

Paul Rust is the charmless, uncharismatic lead, Dennis, a nerd who uses his valedictory speech to tell his classmates what he really thinks of them. And that girl he has lusted for but never ever spoken to? She (Hayden Panettiere) gets his punch line.

“I love you, Beth Cooper.”

She is flattered, and over the course of a long and tedious graduation night, Dennis and his pal Rich (Jack Carpenter), whom he outed in his speech, follow Beth and “The Trinity” (Lauren London and the hilarious Lauren Storm). There is no way to discuss this movie without wondering if there has ever been a more successful awful director than Chris Columbus. The movie was adapted by the fellow who wrote the novel, Larry Doyle, and is so tone-deaf as to make one fear for American publishing. And the woebegone Rust, the poor man’s McLovin, is ill-suited for this in so many ways that you don’t even have to get into his appearance — no timing, no sparkle, zero chemistry with Hayden.

If you go

What: “I Love You, Beth Cooper”

Starring: Hayden Panettiere, Paul Rust

Directed by: Chris Columbus

Running time: 101 minutes

Rated: PG-13 for crude and sexual content, language, some teen drinking and drug references, and brief violence

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