LOSER
Rated PG-13 - Running Time: 1:37 - Released 7/21/00
Written and directed by Amy Heckerling (Clueless), Loser
reminds me of a successful intercontinental airline voyage: uneventful,
predictable, and boring, lumbering toward its inevitable destination
without even any good scenery to look at along the way. Reuniting
two of the young actors who starred in American
Pie (Jason Biggs and Mena Suvari), Heckerling presents
an eminently run-of-the-mill teen romance full of characters about
whom it's hard to give a damn. Biggs and Suvari are both adequately
likeable (in the same way one likes warm milk before bed), but
Heckerling's script doesn't give them the smarts to recognize
what we all see from their first meeting. The thrilling moment
when they finally realize they're meant for each other could easily
be missed by audience members digging for the last kernel of popcorn,
a prospect much more tantalizing.
Paul (Biggs) is first seen surrounded by his loving family
wishing him well as he leaves for college in New York City, with
his father (Dan Aykroyd) assuring him that "people are basically
good." Paul has been reared as an all-around nice guy, a
fact that will prove to be his undoing when he arrives in the
Big Apple. As the script repeatedly points out, literally and
figuratively, New York is a hotbed of iniquity and a den of thieves,
where no one is friendly or kind to his fellow man. Paul is out
of place among his beer-guzzling, drug-taking roommates (Thomas
Sadoski, Zak Orth, and Jimmi Simpson), who not only prevent him
from getting any studying in, but make fun of him for his dress
and his midwestern expressions. Of course, being a nice guy, Paul
takes the personal attacks in stride, but worries that he'll lose
his scholarship if he doesn't maintain his grades. In response
to his concerns, his roomies kick him out. The only one who is
nice to Paul is Dora (Suvari), his 20th-C. Lit classmate who is
similarly put upon. However, Dora is not romantically available
because she is dating the professor (Greg Kinnear), with whom
she is "madly in love" despite the fact that he treats
her like dirt and uses her as a cook, maid, and sex toy. Gee,
I wonder what possible conclusion could come from this intricate
premise.
Throughout its 97-minute running time, the aptly titled Loser
is a poorly executed, shoddy affair. Some of its remarkably ill-thought-out
details are a veterinarian's office whose set design features
shelves of interestingly-shaped, unmarked glass bottles filled
with variously colored liquids, the protagonist's use of the "F-word"
as the moment he becomes a hero, and a misspelled word in the
closing summation. What's more, there are numerous overdubs (where
a character's language is "cleaned up" despite his lips
saying something else) as if Heckerling decided at the last minute
to leave out the sex and go for the PG-13 rating, but forgot about
all the foul language. Biggs and Suvari strain admirably to make
it look like they can't foresee the patently obvious conclusion
in store for them. The one actor who actually seems to put something
into his character is Kinnear, whose Professor Alcott is interesting
and well-rounded, even humorous. Although he is supposed to be
the one we despise most, his character is much more intelligent
and easily identified with than all the others combined.
If you're planning to see Loser, you might want to take your favorite pillow along so you can at least get some shuteye during the trip. **