I Love You, Beth Cooper

Now, I Love You, Beth Cooper was never intending to be an extraordinary movie. And it’s not. It’s very ordinary. It’s exceedingly ordinary. It’s neither good nor bad. It just is. It’s the kind of movie you don’t love and you don’t hate. There are some decent moments in there, but nothing to stick with you longer than a couple minutes afterwards.

It’s a fairly standard square gets caught up with a free-spirit and craziness ensues story. And it’s not bad. But it doesn’t really add anything to the table to make it interesting or stand out. Earlier this year we had I Love You, Man which had a similar square meets free-spirit type premise but just worked better - it gave the story a different twist and interesting, good characters. The characters here are paper thin and we have no real reason to be attached to them.

The movie also fails to really be funny. It’s not painfully unfunny, but there’s no real laugh out loud moments. There are just a few chuckles here and there. And it doesn’t seem to really put too much effort into trying to make you laugh. I can’t really think of anything that felt like it was supposed to be a joke or make me laugh hysterically but just missed or fell flat. And this is supposed to be a comedy, isn’t it?

The only thing that felt as though it was meant to be a running joke is that apparently everyone can see that the main character’s (Denis) best friend (Rich) is gay and implores him to admit it, but he refuses. The thing is…he doesn’t really do anything or say anything or even act in any way to make you think he is. So when people look at him and tell him it’s ok if he’s gay, it feels weird because, aside from a flashback to something he said years ago, it seems like you’re missing something. While it’s good that they don’t make him a stereotype that makes you go ‘he is so gay,’ they fail to even give subtle hints – no sidelong glances, no Freudian slips. Apparently, the fact that he’s in drama club and quotes movies is a sign that he’s gay because, you know…no heterosexual male quotes movies compulsively. Movies like Easy Rider and Scarface. Not chick flicks and he doesn’t sing show tunes. So it feels like this is supposed to be a running joke, they just forgot the joke. If you’re going to make a point of this, make sure there’s a point.

The best moments are when Beth begins to realize that her life, as she knows it, is over. She never looked past high school, she never gave any thought to what she would do afterwards. While Denis, the class valedictorian, will be going to Stanford and, very obviously, has his best days still ahead of him, she’s looking forward to a life in which, it’s quite possible, her best days have just ended. These are the best moments because they feel the most real and heartfelt. It’s this honesty that’s missing from every other part of the movie and keeps the audience from connecting and feeling anything.

It’s not a bad movie. It’s not good. It’s enjoyable to some degree, but not a huge degree. I don’t think director Chris Columbus (of Home Alone, Home Alone 2: Lost in New York, and the first two Harry Potter movies) has the storytelling chops to do something a little more mature like this justice. There’s no edge to give the movie flavor or make it stand out, when there should be. I think in the end, that’s what keeps it from being something better. I can’t say to avoid this movie, but I’d suggest looking for something else.

2 out of 5