''I Love You, Beth Cooper'' is a 2009 American
teen romantic comedy
Romantic comedy (also known as romcom or rom-com) is a subgenre of comedy and slice of life fiction, focusing on lighthearted, humorous plot lines centered on romantic ideas, such as how true love is able to surmount most obstacles. In a typica ...
film directed by
Chris Columbus and starring
Hayden Panettiere and
Paul Rust
Paul Robert Rust (born April 12, 1981) is an American actor, comedian and writer. He starred in the 2009 film ''I Love You, Beth Cooper'' and in the Netflix series ''Love''.
Early life
Rust was born in Le Mars, Iowa, the son of Jeanne and Bob R ...
. It is based on the
novel
A novel is a relatively long work of narrative fiction, typically written in prose and published as a book. The present English word for a long work of prose fiction derives from the for "new", "news", or "short story of something new", itsel ...
by
Larry Doyle, with Doyle also writing the film's screenplay.
Plot
On graduation day at Buffalo Glenn High School,
valedictorian
Valedictorian is an academic title for the highest-performing student of a graduating class of an academic institution.
The valedictorian is commonly determined by a numerical formula, generally an academic institution's grade point average (GPA ...
Denis Cooverman confesses his love for head cheerleader and long time crush, beautiful Beth Cooper in his speech while also taunting vain rich girl Valli, ignorant bully Greg, and Beth's
Army
An army (from Old French ''armee'', itself derived from the Latin verb ''armāre'', meaning "to arm", and related to the Latin noun ''arma'', meaning "arms" or "weapons"), ground force or land force is a fighting force that fights primarily on ...
soldier boyfriend Kevin; and urging his best friend Rich to finally admit he's gay. Afterwards, Denis invites Beth and her friends, Cammy and Treece, to a party he has planned at his house.
At Denis's house, his parents leave but not before his father revealing that he has
condom
A condom is a sheath-shaped barrier device used during sexual intercourse to reduce the probability of pregnancy or a sexually transmitted infection (STI). There are both male and female condoms. With proper use—and use at every act of in ...
s upstairs if he needs them. They arrive at Denis's house for the party. Kevin and his
Hummer
Hummer (stylized as HUMMER) is a brand of pickups and SUVs that was first marketed in 1992 when AM General began selling a civilian version of the M998 Humvee. Although discontinued in 2010, Hummer returned as a sub-brand of GMC in 2020. ...
soon come barging in, with his Army buddies Dustin and Sean, vowing revenge on Denis. They wreck the kitchen attempting to beat Denis up, but the five teenagers escape in Beth's
Echo.
They drive to a gas station hoping to get beer, but the clerk will not accept Beth's drivers license, which states that she is 37. Beth successfully bribes the clerk with a kiss, which makes Denis realize that she is not who he thinks she is.
The group starts a bonfire in an isolated section of town where Rich, Cammy, and Treece are chased by a stampede of cows after trying to
tip one over. When Denis puts on the
KISS
A kiss is the touch or pressing of one's lips against another person or an object. Cultural connotations of kissing vary widely. Depending on the culture and context, a kiss can express sentiments of love, passion, romance, sexual attraction, ...
song "
Beth
Beth may refer to:
Letter and number
*Bet (letter), or beth, the second letter of the Semitic abjads (writing systems)
*Hebrew word for "house", often used in the name of synagogues and schools (e.g. Beth Israel)
Name
*Beth (given name) lists p ...
", Beth tells him that she was named after the song. Denis thinks it's cool that Beth has two "headbangers" for parents. Beth slowly warms to Denis, becoming aware that he genuinely loves her, much to her amazement.
They all jump in the Echo and Beth, a crazy reckless driver, drives without lights. They stumble upon Denis' parents, having sex in their car, by almost crashing into them. Rather than facing Denis' father with his pants down, Beth drives them away unseen, going to a private party at Valli's house. Kevin and his friends track them there, and Kevin challenges Denis to a fight. Greg briefly overpowers the three, in defence of Denis, then Beth crashes Kevin's Hummer through the front of Valli's house and rescues her four friends.
Beth takes them to their vacant school, entering with her head cheerleader key. After showcasing their cheerleading routine, Beth decide they should all shower in the girls' locker room. Just as Denis is undressing to join the others, Kevin and his buddies arrive in the Echo and jump Denis again. Rich attacks the thugs in a towel whipping 'duel', as he has been training for years after being towel whipped as a young kid. Rich towel-whips them unconscious down a flight of stairs, then the kids flee in the Echo, going to Treece's family cabin. Rich, Treece, and Cammy have a
threesome
In human sexuality, a threesome is commonly understood as "a sexual interaction between three people whereby at least one engages in physical sexual behaviour with both the other individuals". Though ''threesome'' most commonly refers to sexua ...
, while Beth and Denis enjoy the sun rise and finally share their first kiss.
They return to Denis' house, where his father is delighted to see he has 'hooked up', but makes him aware he still needs to be punished for leaving the house a wreck. Beth says goodbye, gives Denis a kiss, and touchingly thanks him for loving her. Denis tells her "what's not to love" and that she mustn't forget that. They promise to reunite at their high school reunion and agree to marry if they are both still single.
After the girls leave, Rich proclaims to Denis that he might be
gay after all, or perhaps
bisexual
Bisexuality is a romantic or sexual attraction or behavior toward both males and females, or to more than one gender. It may also be defined to include romantic or sexual attraction to people regardless of their sex or gender identity, whi ...
, but jokes that after the threesome, he's still more heterosexual than Denis. Denis informs Rich that he will not wait until the reunion to talk to Beth again, and that he is going to ask her out on
Facebook
Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin M ...
. Richard tells Denis that he should make a grand gesture by going to her house with a boom box (a reference to ''
Say Anything...'') and wait for her. They continue debating how Denis should go about asking Beth on a date.
Cast
Production
In early 2008, producers announced the novel ''
I Love You, Beth Cooper
''I Love You, Beth Cooper'' is a comedy novel written by former ''The Simpsons, Simpsons'' writer Larry Doyle (writer), Larry Doyle. ''I Love You, Beth Cooper'' follows a high school graduate who confesses his love for a cheerleader during his va ...
'' would be made into a film, with actress
Hayden Panettiere in the title role. Filming began in 2008, with a release slated for July 10, 2009. The film was directed by
Chris Columbus, with the screenplay written by Doyle.
Filming took place in
Vancouver
Vancouver ( ) is a major city in western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the ...
,
British Columbia
British Columbia (commonly abbreviated as BC) is the westernmost province of Canada, situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. It has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that include rocky coastlines, sandy beaches, ...
, with scenes shot at
Centennial Secondary School,
Magee Secondary School
Magee Secondary School is a public secondary school on West 49th Avenue, Vancouver
Vancouver ( ) is a major city in western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most p ...
and
St. Patrick's Regional Secondary. Due to being filmed in a Canadian location during the winter despite its story set during the summertime, there were several difficulties when it came to the weather and the actors having to be in summer attire outside in cold temperatures; hoses occasionally had to be used to rid settings of snow.
The film's official website was launched on February 14, 2009, with a Valentine's Day themed "personalize your own trailer and e-card"
widget that allowed for customization of the trailer and that could be sent to loved ones, friends and family.
The film was produced and originally to be released by Fox specialty subsidiary
Fox Atomic
Fox Atomic was a short-lived production and distribution label of film studios 20th Century Fox and Fox Searchlight Pictures created in 2006 to generate comedy and genre films.
In 2008, following overall disappointing results, Fox Atomic scaled b ...
, but theatrical distribution reverted to
20th Century Fox
20th Century Studios, Inc. (previously known as 20th Century Fox) is an American film production company headquartered at the Fox Studio Lot in the Century City area of Los Angeles. As of 2019, it serves as a film production arm of Walt Dis ...
after Atomic folded in April 2009.
Soundtrack
The soundtrack album was released on June 23, 2009.
Reception
Box office
In its opening weekend (July 10–12), the film grossed $4,919,433 at 1,858 theaters, which was enough for seventh place. The film grossed $14,800,725 at the domestic box office and $1,581,813 in other territories, and it finished its worldwide theatrical run with a total of $16,382,538.
Critical response
On
Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...
, 13% of 119 critics have given the film a positive review, and an average rating of 3.6/10. The site's consensus states: "Heavily reliant on stereotypes and shallow teen comedy clichés, ''I Love You, Beth Cooper'' is a humorless affair that fails to capture the charm of its source novel."
On
Metacritic
Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...
, which calculated an average score of 32 out of 100 from 30 critics, the film received "generally unfavorable reviews".
Audiences surveyed by
CinemaScore
CinemaScore is a market research firm based in Las Vegas. It surveys film audiences to rate their viewing experiences with letter grades, reports the results, and forecasts box office receipts based on the data.
Background
Ed Mintz founded Ci ...
gave the film a grade "B−" on scale of A to F. Critics described the film as "puerile and uninspiring nonsense,"
"lacking in charm, tempo and warmth of any kind,"
and "starved and lethally bland",
while some critics, such as
Peter Bradshaw and
Roger Ebert
Roger Joseph Ebert (; June 18, 1942 – April 4, 2013) was an American film critic, film historian, journalist, screenwriter, and author. He was a film critic for the ''Chicago Sun-Times'' from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, Ebert beca ...
, called it an average teen comedy.
Frequent criticisms were towards what were considered flat performances.
Simon Foster bashed the film as a star vehicle for Panettiere;
Cinematical.com found her unconvincing as a rebellious girl,
while Kaleem Aftab of ''
The National'' opined that she made the character look more like a "spoiled brat".
"She's photogenic, granted, but dimensionless and has minimal screen presence – the final reel about-face that is synonymous with these types of films rings as false as a plastic bell", wrote Foster.
According to Thomas Leupp of Hollywood.com, "Panettiere is appealing as a bright-eyed cheerleader whose perky exterior hides a bad-girl streak, but she doesn't quite project that unattainable quality the role seems to call for. She's more like the superhot girl-next-door who you think is attainable but probably isn't."
''
Time Out London
''Time Out'' is a global magazine published by Time Out Group. ''Time Out'' started as a London-only publication in 1968 and has expanded its editorial recommendations to 328 cities in 58 countries worldwide.
In 2012, the London edition becam ...
'' elaborated about the acting overall that "lines fall flat thanks to long pauses and hammy delivery."
Leupp commented that Rust "attempts to compensate for the flat material he's given by overplaying virtually every joke — to the point at which you'll actually root for his antagonists to pummel him without mercy."
The inclusion of a ''
Ferris Bueller's Day Off'' lead as Denis' father also ticked off reviewers.
However, Carpenter and Rust's presences received some positive comments,
particularly their chemistry together;
in fact, ''
The Independent
''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publis ...
''s Anthony Quinn wrote that Rust and Carpenter were the only reasons to watch the film.
"One of the film's running gags – that Rich is gay but won't admit, even to himself, what everybody knows – is uncommonly heartfelt because of the way the actors handle the situation. In most movies you have to take for granted that the buddies really are buddies. Not here," wrote Peter Rainer of ''
The Christian Science Monitor
''The Christian Science Monitor'' (''CSM''), commonly known as ''The Monitor'', is a nonprofit news organization that publishes daily articles in electronic format as well as a weekly print edition. It was founded in 1908 as a daily newspaper ...
''.
Reiner additionally claimed that "in his first starring role,
ust UST or Ust may refer to:
Organizations
* UST (company), American digital technology company
* Equatorial Guinea Workers' Union
* Union of Trade Unions of Chad (Union des Syndicats du Tchad)
* United States Television Manufacturing Corp.
* UST Grow ...
shows off the crack timing of a seasoned pro."
When it came to characters, the stereotypical lead male (in Aftab's view)
of Denis Cooverman was the most criticized. According to Foster, he's "game but drawn so broadly he never amounts to more than a comic foil, well below the romantic lead the film asks him to become."
''Time Out London'' called him "a truly ungainly specimen with little to offer
..other than novelty value and infatuation."
The character of Rich Munsch was criticized by ''
Empire
An empire is a "political unit" made up of several territories and peoples, "usually created by conquest, and divided between a dominant center and subordinate peripheries". The center of the empire (sometimes referred to as the metropole) ex ...
'' writer William Thomas, who wrote that his arc "is treated so simplistically that it might offend even Bruno" and has "a character tic (he constantly quotes movie dialogue, complete with the film name, director and year of release) thats so annoying you want to say, 'This has all been just a big mistake.'"
The film's humor was panned. Brought-up examples in reviews included the tampon nosebleed scene,
Rich's referencing of movie quotes,
an off-screen threesome,
a ''
Star Wars
''Star Wars'' is an American epic film, epic space opera multimedia franchise created by George Lucas, which began with the Star Wars (film), eponymous 1977 film and quickly became a worldwide popular culture, pop-culture Cultural impact of S ...
'' lightsaber fight,
a moment where a character steps in cow poop,
and "all comedy pratfalls followed by some excruciating silences where you're meant to be laughing."
While Columbus' dip into edgier material was applauded by ''
The Independent
''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publis ...
''s Anthony Quinn,
it wasn't by Thomas, who unfavorably labeled it a "curiously chaste affair
..that feels curiously unsure of itself, as if Columbus wants to take that extra step into slightly raunchier, ''
Risky Business
''Risky Business'' is a 1983 American teen comedy-drama film written and directed by Paul Brickman (in his directorial debut) and starring Tom Cruise and Rebecca De Mornay. Best known as Cruise's breakout film, ''Risky Business'' was a critical ...
''-style material, but just can't bring himself to."
Rainer and ''Can Mag'' writer Fred Topel were turned off by the film's comic portrayal of life-endangering situations,
such as sequences depicting Beth's poor driving skills.
Some reviewers negatively compared ''I Love You, Beth Cooper'' to other 1980s-teen-movie-styled products.
Simon Foster strongly disliked its removal of the genre's traditional "all-important sweetness": "It is not a step forward in teen movie scriptwriting to expose a school bully's history as a sexual abuse victim for mirth, or to make a running gag out of one student's closeted homosexuality, nor pitch the felonious actions of the blonde teen queen as the height of coolness."
In the mind of Allan Hunter of the ''
Daily Express
The ''Daily Express'' is a national daily United Kingdom middle-market newspaper printed in tabloid format. Published in London, it is the flagship of Express Newspapers, owned by publisher Reach plc. It was first published as a broadsheet i ...
'', "the mixture of obvious jokes and winsome sentiment pretty much robs the film of any guilty pleasure value it might have provided."
Some reviewers thought the only good scene was its opening,
Leupp reasoning that it "shows the potential to be something sly and clever."
Stempel suggested the script had "some clever ideas," but they were ruined by Columbus' "telegraphed" directing style.
The film's slow pacing was also criticized.
In more positive reviews, Rainer, while suggesting ''I Love You, Beth Cooper'' was derivative for a Doyle script, also opined it to be better than most other teen films for its "unnaturally lush and woodsy," setting, unique premise, and rejection of a "handy" moral promoting traditionalism: "it doesn't take us long to figure out that Beth is more than a bimbo. Or to put it another way, she's a bimbo with heart. She's drawn to Denis because he adores her for who she is rather than (or in addition to) how she looks."
Lisa Schwarzbaum of ''
Entertainment Weekly
''Entertainment Weekly'' (sometimes abbreviated as ''EW'') is an American digital-only entertainment magazine based in New York City, published by Dotdash Meredith, that covers film, television, music, Broadway theatre, books, and popular cul ...
'' considered its story "pleasantly low-key" and essentially timeless.
References
External links
*
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:I Love You, Beth Cooper
2009 films
2009 comedy films
2000s comedy road movies
2000s coming-of-age comedy films
2000s teen comedy films
2000s teen sex comedy films
American coming-of-age comedy films
American comedy road movies
American teen comedy films
20th Century Fox films
Films about threesomes
Films based on American novels
Films directed by Chris Columbus
Films set in Washington (state)
Films shot in Vancouver
Films scored by Christophe Beck
Dune Entertainment films
Films produced by Chris Columbus
Films produced by Michael Barnathan
Films with screenplays by Larry Doyle
1492 Pictures films
2000s English-language films
2000s American films