About as inventive as the Abbotts

Three teenagers. A small midwestern town. Coming-of-age film. Director Pat O'Connor (of Circle of Friends). I'd expected more. I wanted the film to grab me, kind of like St. Elmo's Fire had. But those are pretty big shoes to fill. The story about three rich girls and two working-class boys deals more with the idea of a class conflict than anyone banding together or making a great personal discovery.

The three Abbott girls are the most sought-after dates in town. "Alice [Joanna Going] is the good one," explains Pamela Abbott (Liv Tyler)-the youngest of the three-to her longtime confidante, Doug Holt (Joaquin Phoenix). "Eleanor [Jennifer Connelly] is the bad one, and I'm the one who just sort of gets off the hook."

And so it is, as hotheaded Jacey Holt (Billy Crudup), 17 and headed to Penn in the fall, pursues and snares the bad-girl Eleanor in retaliation for the Abbotts' in-your-face wealth. He seethes inside every time he gasses up the Abbotts' perennially brand-new Cadillac, expecting that the Abbotts owe him something for being so rich. See, when the boys' father died long ago, their mother (Kathy Baker) seems to have weakened under all the pressure, selling a patent for a full-suspension file drawer to the Abbotts. Since then, the Holts have been getting along fine on an elementary teacher's salary, while the Abbotts get richer and richer every day on the patent that should have been the Holts'.

And such explains Jacey's pathological desire to sleep his way into a wealthy family, especially the Abbott family. But father Lloyd Abbott tails Jacey and Eleanor after a rendezvous at Lookout Point and sends Eleanor far away from the temptation the Holt boys seem to offer.

With Eleanor out of the picture, Jacey turns to the next-best option and pursues the already-filing-for-divorce eldest daughter, Alice. After Lloyd Abbott, who cares just as much about status as Jacey, squelches the Jacey-Alice fling, Jacey is left like a loaded gun, ready to fire at anything in his path. And it all blows up in his face.

Meanwhile, Doug Holt and Pamela Abbott are 15, and have no mind for the monetary gulf that separates them. They dance at the Abbott parties, heedless to the turmoil surrounding their friendship. But it almost falls apart when Jacey tries to teach Doug something about class consciousness.

While the idea sounds noble, the plot is hollow and fairly predictable. You know from the beginning that somehow, Doug and Pam are going to see through the shroud of wealth and send a message to the audience. And you know that somehow, Jacey is going to have to learn a lesson about spite and retaliation.

Jacey emerges as a despicable, pathological character in his pursuit of everything Abbott and his intense desire to rid himself of his small-town upbringing. He even chastises Doug for following him to Penn on a full scholarship for set design. "Quit following in my shadow," Jacey yells. "You're on your own. I don't need you reminding me of this hick town in the middle of nowhere."

Pam Abbott on the other hand, knows exactly what she wants, but not quite how to get there. She spends most of the film trying to avoid her family's destiny of being the most admired yet most despised people in town. Unlike the other Abbott girls, Pam's heart is just underneath her sleeve, where it is easily accessed, but not so easily hurt.

Kathy Baker delivers a stand-up performance as Helen Holt, the woman who is rumored to have had an affair with Lloyd Abbott after her husband's death. That alleged relationship helps explain Jacey's hatred for the Abbotts, who thinks that's the reason the Abbotts have the patent.

But Helen Holt takes the "I let my sons take care of their own messes" attitude a little too far. She sees Jacey's psychotic desire for the Abbott girls, but only advises him that she will not permit his sleeping with them in her house. Nowhere does she suggest to Jacey that his quests are not exactly healthy ones, nor that messing with the Abbotts can't be a good idea. However, Baker portrays a strong woman who has seen a lot, and knows her boys are a handful. But she trusts them and their ability to extract themselves from their own predicaments.

In a film about class consciousness and communication, one would expect the brothers to be united in their fight against the Abbotts. But the audience is informed right away that this is not to be a film about brotherly love. "I never really knew my brother," Doug recalls in his role as narrator. The boys work different jobs and have different friends (if they have any-the only people the Holts are shown to interact with are the Abbotts). The boys do, however, share a tortuous physical relationship-their two fist fights, both of which are initiated by Doug, are pretty dramatic, though not heartwarming.

One might think that the Holts' tumultuous relationship is refreshing since it veers from the norm. But it isn't particularly refreshing nor is it insightful. On one hand, the audience gets the feeling that Jacey Holt resents the fact that he never got to know his father, while Doug-who was born after his father's death-is not bitter, since he never knew their father in the first place.

While this comparison makes for some interesting family dynamics, it is trite and empty. There is just something missing from Inventing the Abbotts that I can't quite put my finger on, but I think this non-relationship may be a part of the problem.

In a film about people, I expected the cast to cry out to me, leaving me with food for thought. Instead, all I could think about on the way out the door was food for me. Inventing the Abbotts will be wildly popular among the 12 to 16-year-old set, with Tyler and Phoenix as headliners. But I've seen better explorations of class consciousness through various other films and novels, so I was looking for something new and different. But I may have to invent my own novelties.