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Weekly Archive > Weekend Read > 08/18/06
Rejected
By nick randall
Accepted
Adam Cooper & Bill Collage and Mark Perez
After a promising start to Steve Pink's (co-writer of Grosse Point Blank, High Fidelity) directorial debut, Accepted quickly becomes just another college comedy with forgettable characters and logic that will make your head spin. The story follows Bartleby Gaines (Justin Long) and a group of misfit friends who get rejected from every college from Harvard to DeVry, only to start their own fake university instead. There are some legitimate laughs, especially from Sherman, who is Bartleby's lone friend to get into a real school, and who spends all his time trying to impress a fraternity by wearing hot dog suits in public and yelling "Touch my wiener!" Despite the above-average comedy, the film's message that student creativity takes precedence over school curriculum is where the script falls apart. While it's true that today's classrooms can feel like educational assembly lines, the film doesn't convince us that any of the characters are better off for choosing the more "creative" alternative. Bartleby himself experiences no growth and has no long-term goals. He gives a speech about discovering what you truly want out of life, and yet we have no idea what he wants. Not even a clue. Heck, one girl who gets rejected from Yale spends the entire film "finding herself" by sitting on mats and meditating all day. Yet, she makes no self-discovery. She just meditates and drinks a lot of margaritas. Sure, Accepted is funny, but at the end of the day, I'd rather be at Yale.
Accepted
Universal Pictures
Rated PG-13; 90 min.
Buy tickets now
Nick Randall received his MFA in Screenwriting from Loyola Marymount University in 2006. He currently works as a story analyst in Beverly Hills and spends his days reading many, many screenplays.
Accepted courtesy Universal Pictures
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