A LITTLE MORE than 20 years ago, during the heyday of the late John Hughes, Chris Columbus directed a fine youth-oriented comedy called Adventures in Babysitting.
Despite later financial success with Home Aloneand the first two Harry Potterfilms, that modest picture still feels like his best work.
Maybe in some secret part of his psyche Columbus agrees. How else might one explain this bungled attempt to recapture the spirit of John Hughes High? A delayed midlife crisis? A screwdriver in the brain? Based on a novel – A novel? You’re having a laugh – by Larry Doyle, the film details the events that immediately succeed an archetypal nerd’s graduation from high school.
Persuaded into ill-advised honesty by his closeted best friend, Denis (Paul Rust) finds time in his valedictory address to announce his love for cheerleader Beth Cooper (Hayden Panettiere), his disdain for the bullies and his sympathy for various unfortunate anorexics. Later that night, he finally makes friends with Beth as they flee her furious boyfriend.
There are some decent performances in the film (Alan Ruck, the nerd from Hughes's Ferris Bueller's Day Off, turns up as a parent), but the direction is so sluggish, the jokes so flaccid and the story so slim that it will work only for those suffering from acute insomnia.
Get back to the golf course, Uncle Chris. This is (or should be) young man’s work.
