I LOVE YOU, BETH COOPER (Fox, 2009) D: Chris Columbus, w/ Paul Rust, Hayden Panettiere. Rating: NNN DVD package: NN Rating: NNN
As soon as you’ve finished this comedy, flip to the extras and watch the alternate ending. It’s both funnier and more dramatically satisfying, largely because the movie’s emotional content delivers only the clichés it’s trying to escape.
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Classic high school nerd Dennis Cooverman (Paul Rust) makes the titular confession in the middle of his valedictory address, embarrassing the school’s top hottie, Beth Cooper (Hayden Panettiere), and enraging her steroid-case boyfriend (Shawn Roberts).
Beth gets curious enough to check him out, and with her girlfriends and Dennis’s maybe-gay best friend (Jack Carpenter) in tow, off they go for a night of comic misadventure and periodic assaults by the boyfriend.
Along the way, Dennis and Beth discover the real people under their facades – a key element in every John Hughes movie since The Breakfast Club. Ho hum.
But Rust, Panetierre and the rest are likeable, energetic performers, and director Chris Columbus knows how to get maximum mileage from the gags. That’s a good thing, because most of the humour is mild and predictable – lots of chuckles, not so many belly laughs.
Unless you think that Larry Doyle, who scripted from his novel, does a breathtaking job of catching the inner truth of teenage angst and want to hear the cast agree with you, skip the extras.
EXTRAS Writer doc, cast doc, Rust and Panettiere interviews. English, French, Spanish audio. English, Spanish subtitles.
