I Just Want to Be Friends, 'Beth Cooper'

“I Love You, Beth Cooper,” recently released on DVD, is a pretty faithful adaptation of the book of the same name.

And just like with the book, I enjoyed some parts of the film immensely, but could have done without plenty as well.

The movie follows the fallout of the titular proclamation, made by high school outcast Denis Cooverman (Paul Rust, “Inglorious Basterds”) during his valedictory speech. The object of his affection (Hayden Panettiere, “Heroes”) is the uber-popular head cheerleader and is somewhat embarrassed, but also a little amused, by his outburst.

That’s about the only thing that goes right for Denis, as graduation night degenerates into a running party/chase with the girl of his dreams.

The movie, directed by Chris Columbus (“Rent,” the first two “Harry Potter” movies), does a great job of communicating teenage awkwardness, albeit on a scale beyond even what I experienced in high school. Denis’ unrequited love for Beth is believable, earnest and more than a little creepy.

Yet the book and the film (with a screenplay written by its author, Larry Doyle) also manage to turn parts of the story into a dream come true for a sex-crazed teenage boy. A major theme is that Denis doesn’t think of Beth as just a sex object — yet sex is exactly the focus of much of the film.

There’s enough good, clever comedy in the film to keep it from being dismissed as an unfortunate collection of sex jokes, but too much of such “humor” to make it a really special movie.

The only major departure from the book is the absence of the nail-biting climax, which may have been deemed too unrealistic or distracting for the film version, but which I rather enjoyed.