I Love You Beth Cooper (2009)

ReelViews 6 of 10
I Love You, Beth Cooper contains a share of effective elements wrapped around the core that, overall, isn't very good. Although masquerading as a generic teen romantic comedy, the film touches on topics that are atypically introspective for this sort of production, although it fails to delve into them in a manner that would elevate the proceedings to a higher level. The tone is an uneven brew of the satirical and the serious, although the former lacks the edge to give it bite and the latter is only occasionally applied with conviction. The result feels at odds with itself and never fully satisfies. There's a sense that a much better movie is trying to get out but it never attains escape velocity...There's a sense that I Love You, Beth Cooper has been smoothed out and dumbed down to reach the broadest audience. (Not having read the novel by Larry Doyle, who also penned the screenplay, I can't say for sure.) As good as some of the bonding material is, that's how unfortunate many of the so-called comedic and generic story elements are. I Love You, Beth Cooper is schizophrenic - two very different movies uneasily occupying the same space and time. One of them has promise; the other is annoying and off-putting. The filmmakers lacked the courage and conviction to tell an honest, character-based story and resorted to something that has been massaged into a more comfortable, easily consumable cinematic morsel. Too bad the inevitable result of ingesting this is heartburn. - James Berardinelli
 
Chicago Sun-Times 6 of 10
The writer of I Love You, Beth Cooper says the story is based on a dream. I believe him. This is one of the very few movies where I wanted the hero to wake up and discover it was only a dream. But it's a dream all the way through -- a dream evoking just another teen rom-com...The situation is so universal. The high school nerd harbors a secret crush on the most popular girl in school. He chooses the occasion of his valedictory speech to proclaim in public this love. We can believe that, all the way up to the valedictory speech. But, yes, this is another movie hailing a hero with the courage to say what he really believes and accept the consequences...I'm thinking of films that remember what it's like to be a teenager with a hopeless love. Almost Famous, Lucas, Say Anything, The Man in the Moon. If I were a filmmaker like Chris Columbus, who has directed two of the Harry Potter films, I don't know if I'd bother with this genre unless I felt I could make a film aspiring to that kind of stature...Of the two co-stars, what I can say is that I'm looking forward to their next films. As Beth, Hayden Panettiere is professional and lovable; she convincingly projects emotions and has a face the screen loves. Paul Rust, as Denis the valedictorian, can be very earnest and sincere, and actually seems to take the plot seriously, which is more than I could do. - Roger Ebert