New U.S. Release

Accepted

By JUSTIN CHANG

Read other reviews about this film

Powered By

Justin Long falls for Blake Lively in 'Accepted,' the story of college rejects creating a school of their own.

Jonah Hill plays Bartleby's best friend, Sherman, in 'Accepted.'

A Universal release of a Shady Acres production. Produced by Tom Shadyac, Michael Bostick. Executive producers, Louis G. Friedman, Mark Perez, Brian Lutz. Directed by Steve Pink. Screenplay, Adam Cooper, Bill Collage, Mark Perez, based on a story by Perez.
 
Bartleby Gaines - Justin Long
Sherman Schrader - Jonah Hill
Monica - Blake Lively
Rory - Maria Thayer
Glen - Adam Herschman
Uncle Ben - Lewis Black
Dean Van Horne - Anthony Heald
Hands - Columbus Short
Hoyt Ambrose - Travis Van Winkle
Kiki - Diora Baird
Diane Gaines - Ann Cusack
Jack Gaines - Mark Derwin
Abernathy (A.D.D.) - Robin Lord Taylor
Dwayne - Kellan Lutz
Wayne - Brendan Miller
 

Acceptable as a slab of teen-targeted summer fare, "Accepted" is a cheerfully implausible underdog comedy about several college rejects who invent a phony alma mater, only to find themselves paying way more than just tuition. Conceived in the same authority-defying, loser-uniting vein as a mainstream Richard Linklater picture, this glibly amusing paean to coed slackerdom may get docked some B.O. credits due to its late summer release from Universal -- opposite (gulp) "Snakes on a Plane" -- though youth biz should be brisk enough before it graduates into the world of homevid.

Clocking in at a weightless but far from witless 92 minutes, snappily executed pic reps the feature helming debut of Steve Pink, who co-wrote the John Cusack vehicles "Grosse Pointe Blank" and "High Fidelity." "Accepted," penned by the team of Adam Cooper, Bill Collage and Mark Perez, has a similarly slick way with dialogue, while its hyper-articulate hero suggests a younger prototype of one of Cusack's fast-talking charmers.

Bartleby Gaines (Justin Long, the gangly and likeable thesp from "Dodgeball" and "The Break-Up") is an Ohio teenager with lousy grades but a quicksilver ability to B.S. his way out of any situation. Faced with social ostracism and the disappointment of his parents (Mark Derwin and Ann Cusack) after being rejected by every college he applied to, Bartleby drafts a fake acceptance letter to the South Harmon Institute of Technology, the equally fake "sister school" of the illustrious Harmon College.

He even talks his best friend Sherman (Jonah Hill), a rotund nerd who's set to begin classes at Harmon College in the fall, into building a snazzy Web site for the phony institute.

When his parents insist on visiting the campus, Bartleby goes to ridiculously desperate lengths to maintain the illusion, obtaining the deed to a long-abandoned mental hospital ("Hope you have hobo stab insurance," Sherman mutters in one of the script's better lines), dressing it up as a place of higher learning and tapping Sherman's weird Uncle Ben (Lewis Black, gleefully off his rocker) to play the dean.

Joining Bartleby in this massive undertaking are fellow rejects Hands (Columbus Short), whose recent injury cost him an athletic scholarship; Rory (Maria Thayer), a Yale reject who neglected to apply anywhere else; and Glen (Adam Herschman), an all-around weirdo whose future looks to consist of a series of fast-food counters. But with the exception of Sherman, who benefits from Hill's sharp timing, none of Bartleby's friends emerges as a memorable second fiddle.

Things get even more out of hand when hundreds of flakes, freaks and former strippers find out about South Harmon and manage to gain admission via an online loophole. Forced to improvise, Bartleby and friends come up with the ultimate liberal education, in which lounging, skateboarding and nonstop partying are treated as serious subjects and students are encouraged to think for themselves (or not at all).

Providing a stiff contrast is Harmon College, whose rigidly traditionalist dean (snide bad guy extraordinaire Anthony Heald) sends golden boy Hoyt Ambrose (Travis Van Winkle) to investigate South Harmon.

Hoyt is also head of a Harmon fraternity, allowing pic to take a high and mighty attitude toward hazing rituals while planting the requisite seed of longing between Bartleby and Hoyt's girlfriend, Monica (Blake Lively).

Helmer Pink maintains a fluid pace and keeps the zingers flying so rapidly that the numerous plotholes -- where does everyone sleep? How could the creative masterminds behind such a charade not have gotten into college? -- nag only in retrospect. Even a running gag about the school's groan-worthy initials pays consistent comic dividends.

As a misfit-empowering comedy that embraces the stragglers and fringe-dwellers of teen society, "Accepted" is sweetly amusing, gently anarchic and never mean-spirited. But as it winds toward its final showdown between South Harmon and a state accreditation board, its attempts to make an inspiring, grand statement about mediocrity as a legitimate form of personal expression feel awfully threadbare.

Like Bartleby, the script has a talent for making hooey sound good. But pic falters when it begs to be taken seriously, especially when its portrayal of Harmon as a soul-deadening preppy wasteland tips over into sanctimony.

Long continues to cement his status as an improbably reliable leading man, carrying the comedy effortlessly with his extended verbal flights of fancy.

Well-chosen locations are nonetheless a far cry from Ohio: Orange County's Chapman U. stood in for Harmon, while South Harmon exteriors were shot at a veterans' affairs hospital in Northridge, Calif.

Camera (Technicolor, widescreen), Matthew F. Leonetti; editor, Scott Hill; music, David Schommer; executive music producer, Kathy Nelson; production designer, Rusty Smith; art director, Denise Hudson; set decorator, Sara Andrews Ingrassia; costume designer, Genevieve Tyrrell; sound (Dolby Digital/SDDS/DTS), Steve Cantamessa, John Halaby; supervising sound editor, Michael Hilkene; co-supervising sound editor, Odin Benitez; stunt coordinator, Tom McComas; associate producers, Amanda Morgan Palmer, Jason Wilson, Jonathan Watson; assistant director, Watson; casting, Joseph Middleton. Reviewed at Chinese 6, Los Angeles, Aug. 2, 2006. MPAA Rating: PG-13. Running time: 92 MIN.