I first became aware of Larry Doyle’s novel I Love You Beth Cooper during a random walk through a book store. Its cover art, by one of my favorite comics creators Evan Dorkin, had caught my eye and led to an impulse purchase. Unfortunately, the book is currently languishing in a milk crate with several books I haven’t found the time to get to yet.
And I hate to say that the first trailer for the film adaptation of the book doesn’t have me running to pull the novel out of storage to start reading.
The film is being helmed by Gremlins and Goonies scripter-turned-director Chris Columbus, but oddly enough, while watching the trailer, I found myself thinking that this was more akin to material from another 80s cinematic stalwart, John Hughes. The geeky, awkward kid finally getting a shot at the girl of his dreams is definitely the starting point of many of his films. However, as shown in the trailer, I Love You Beth Cooper seems to steer more towards standard romantic comedy territory than a quirky and heartfelt look at the teenage romance. Hopefully, it is just a badly assembled trailer.
I Love You Beth Cooper opens July 10.
