Another high school/college romantic comedy type of movie that I love to watch, Loser is not remarkable enough to distinguish itself from the pack. Although I thoroughly enjoyed the movie, I could still see that it doesn't have anything new or any original twists to bring a fresh perspective to the teen romance category.

We start out in north-central USA, probably Minnesota by the accents. Paul Tannek (played by Jason Biggs) is a bright young man who has just gotten a full scholarship to some New York university. His family throws him a party and we see that Paul is a nice guy who is a bit worried about going so far away. But his dad (played by Dan Aykroyd in a very small role) reassures him and gives him some advice ("be a listener").

Once in New York Paul is a veritable fish out of water. He constantly wears the kind of hat that you see Canadian trappers wear in the movies. He's too polite, too clumsy, studies too much and doesn't party enough. His three roommates think he's a loser. But on the bright side he meets Dora who is also taking a Literature class.

Dora Diamond (Mena Suvari) is a struggling student. She works at a night club to earn money for tuition, but the commute is horrible and she is slowly losing the battle of keeping up with school and being able to afford school. Dora is having an affair with the Literature professor, Edward Alcott (played by Greg Kinnear). It's one of those "we have to keep it secret so we can only have sex when I want to" type of relationships that makes you want to kill Alcott.

In any case, Paul's roommates kick him out of the dorm and he finds a room at a nearby veterinary clinic, although he has to share his room with a bunch of locked up cats and dogs. Paul's former roommates (who are a pretty scummy bunch of slackers) convince Paul to allow them to hold a "charity fundraiser" at the clinic so that they can meet chicks.

Dora is lured to the fundraiser and then is drugged with some sort of date rape drug. Luckily she passes out in the bathroom and is left alone. When Paul gets back to find the mess he discovers Dora and takes her to the hospital. One thing leads to another and somehow she is discharged into his care so that she can sleep off the drugs in 48 hours or so. Dora wakes to find Paul taking care of her and after that they start to become friends.

You may be able to see where this goes (or not since I haven't explained it all that well). Paul hides his feelings for Dora, and supports her attempts to blossom her relationship with Edward. Dora slowly starts to find out that Edward is not such a nice guy and that Paul really likes her. In the end they both have to decide just where they are going to go with their lives.

As I said at the beginning, I liked this movie and it left me feeling good at the end. It doesn't really have anything remarkably different than other movies in the genre. Jason Biggs is ok, as is Mena Suvari. Greg Kinnear is actually a good scumbag, as are Paul's three former roommates. It's not a long movie, about 90 minutes. Sort of jump around a bit. And the baby kitten is one of the worst props I've seen in a while. So I can only recommend this movie if you like teen romances.