A nerdy valedictorian proclaims his love for the hottest and most popular girl in school - Beth Cooper - during his graduation speech. Much to his surprise, Beth shows up at his door that very night and decides to show him the best night of his life.   - skip ad - Genres: Comedy and Adaptation Running Time: 1 hr. 42 min. Release Date: July 10th, 2009 (wide) MPAA Rating: PG-13 for crude and sexual content, language, some teen drinking and drug references, and brief violence. Distributor: 20th Century Fox Distribution Cast And Credits Starring: Lauren London, Paul Rust, Lauren Storm, Jack T. Carpenter, Hayden Panettiere Directed by: Chris Columbus Produced by: Jennifer C. Blum, Michael Flynn, Larry Doyle

“It’s O.K. just to have fun sometimes,” says a dad (Alan Ruck) to his anxious, nerdy son. So true. And if fun is what you’re looking for, you might want to avoid “I Love You, Beth Cooper,” the drab and incoherent teen comedy in which this nugget of advice appears.

Directed by Chris Columbus with barely enough style and cinematic panache to eke out three minutes on YouTube, “I Love You, Beth Cooper” starts promisingly enough, with that anxious, nerdy son, Denis Cooverman (Paul Rust) delivering the valedictory address at his high school graduation.

In a moment of reckless bravery that appears less and less in character as the picture wears on, he blurts out a number of shocking and uncomfortable truths about his classmates, including the five words that give the movie its name.

Beth, played with good humor by Hayden Panettiere (“Heroes”) is the honey-blond head of the cheerleading squad and the kind of girl who, in a movie like this, barely knows that poor Denis exists. Nonetheless she shows up with her two not-so-mean-girl sidekicks (Lauren London and Lauren Storm) at his lame graduation party, where the only other guest is his best friend Rich (Jack Carpenter).

The girls’ arrival kicks off a long night’s journey into semi-maturity, during which nothing remotely as funny happens as the least funny thing that happens in “Superbad.”

What does happen is that Rich strenuously denies that he’s gay, while Denis is punched by Beth’s psycho-warrior boyfriend, falls off a roof, is hit by a car and winds up looking as bloody and battered as Edward Norton in “Fight Club.” Larry Doyle’s script for “I Love You, Beth Cooper,” based on his somewhat better novel of the same title, contains one or two mildly amusing jokes, but it can’t decide what tone it wants to take, swerving between simpering sincerity and jumpy, resentful hostility.

The conceit is that Denis will finally learn to appreciate the real Beth Cooper, but her character, like his, is composed of so many contradictory modes of behavior and states of feeling that she never registers as anything but a cute blonde with inexplicable patience for the gawky guy who professes to love her.

Denis, for his part, is nothing more than a collection of familiar traits, whose passions are too crabbed, small and uncertain to sustain a whole movie, even one whose governing passion is offered tongue in cheek.

“I Love You, Beth Cooper” is rated PG-13 (Parents strongly cautioned). It has teasing allusions to adolescent sex, fights and under-age drinking.