Film review: I Love You, Beth Cooper

Published on Thursday 20 August 2009 19:11

I LOVE YOU, BETH COOPER (15) ** DIRECTED BY: CHRIS COLUMBUS STARRING: HAYDEN PANETTIERE, PAUL RUST, JACK CARPENTER, LAUREN LONDON

THIS decidedly 1980s teen comedy tries, not always convincingly, to retrofit the American Pie-style coming-of-age pic with the waking-nightmare vibe of After Hours.

After nerdy high-schooler Denis Cooverman (Rust) uses his valedictorian speech to declare his love for the blonde-haired, blue-eyed girl of his dreams (Panettiere), he spends the remainder of the evening ducking the consequences. First losing a tooth, then being hit by a car, he discovers the eponymous Beth is more of a wildcat than he ever imagined – pity that her current boyfriend, a coked-up, bull-headed marine, is also in hot pursuit. Further backward nods include a role for Alan Ruck – Ferris Bueller's immortal Cameron – as the hero's dad, but overall this feels much less authentically Hughesian in its calculated tone than last weekend's Bandslam. The leads, for one, never gel: while head cheerleader Panettiere is her usual bright, oddly sexless self, Rust resembles a 45-year-old regional manager at a stationery outlet. It would have made an acceptable VHS rental in the era of Better Off Dead, but two decades on, this appears too obviously the work of middle-aged men – director Columbus included – trying to regain past glories.