Accepted

Ratings : * Avoidable ** Average *** Good **** Must Watch

The plot begins with Bartleby Gaines (Justin Long), a high-school senior who, among other high-school pranks, creates fake IDs. He is stunned when he is rejected by every college he applies to. Bartleby, in an attempt to seek continued approval from his father, whose paternal position is that if Bartleby is not accepted into and subsequently graduates from an accredited institution of higher learning, would then be certainly doomed to complete failure in society, Bartleby seeks to create his own, fake college, the South Harmon Institute of Technology, to make his parents believe that he had been "Accepted" (hence the title of the film).

Having been accepted into the prestigious Harmon College Sherman Schrader III (Jonah Hill), who has been Bartleby's best friend and "partner in crime" since kindergarten, agrees to help out with setting up the scheme. The film's dialogue generally implies that both have always done everything together in life, and one particular line of dialogue suggests that there is an understanding between Bartleby and Schrader that Schrader caused Bartleby's younger sister Lizzie to be born as a result of the theft of Bartleby's mother's birth control pills.

Arriving at the conclusion that they will require a campus to continue the ruse, the group locates and leases an abandoned psychiatric hospital on realty adjacent to the campus of Harmon College, and proceeds to refurbish it. With everything remodeled, the broken-down hospital now satisfactorily resembles a college building. With a functional website, originally created by Schrader to help B mislead his father into believing in the authenticity of South Harmon, the "college" has subsequently been inadvertently accepting applicants, and much to the dismay of Bartleby, the campus is soon brimming with new students. Sherman confirms to Bartleby that the website tagline depicted in the website, "Acceptance is just a Click away!" he made, much to Bartleby's dismay, clickable, by not objecting when Bartleby exclaims "...yeah, but I didn't mean for you to make the link clickable!"

Subsequently, Bartleby, sensing that the group have now been placed under a duty to handle the students and begin the operations of the new "college", proceeds to explain the situation and secures the cooperation ofe Sherman's uncle, the intelligent, highly-educated, socially-conscious (but socially marginalized) Ben Lewis (Lewis Black), who, it is arguably implied in the plot, is (1) an alcoholic; and, (2) a disbarred lawyer (although neither of these plot assertions are depicted to any reasonable extent of certitude) to act as Dean of Students.

A subplot throughout the remainder of the film consists of Schrader attempting to be indoctrinated as a "legacy" into his fraternity house, going to the extreme of humiliating himself, as directed by his prospective fraternity brothers, but culminating in an instance of hazing whereby Schrader is coerced into revealing B's scheme as to South Harmon. Also, during this time, Bartleby's relationship with his high school crush Monica (Blake Lively) develops, as Monica has become disgusted with the conduct of her erstwhile fraternity-president boyfriend.

At one point, Bartleby's sister Lizzie arrives at the campus to "check up" on him and discovers the hoax they have created, but B successfully bribes Lizzie in order to secure her cooperation. Lizzie, after being unable to obtain twenty thousand dollars from B (a comment obviously made in jest as Lizzie, too, realizes Bartleby's duty as to the tuition money) quickly settles for a fake driver's license ("so I can vote") and a motorscooter.

With the few million dollars in tuition money contributed from the South Harmon students, Bartleby uses the funds to expand and upgrade the facility, including expanded dorm rooms and common areas, and also a lot of what initially seem to be entertainment systems, such as a "half pipe" for skateboarding and a large swimming pool, but which are subsequently demonstrated to comprise both an athletic facility and and engineering curriculum facility. Bartleby tells the South Harmon students to concoct additional curricula by describing whatever they feel like doing and listing these activities as their own class subjects, by writing these "subjects" on a whiteboard, depicting classes such as "Do Nothing 101" and "The Art of Sleeping".

The sole exception to this collectively lackadaisical approach is made by Bartleby's friend Glen, who, after having been invited into the scheme by co-conspirator Rory, creates a structured culinary arts curriculum through refurbishing the building's commercial-grade kitchen. One of the high points of the film's dialogue occurs when Glen, after a muffled explosion is heard emanating from the kitchen, emerges to exclaim to Bartleby and Monica that "I'm working with some very unstable herbs!"

Otherwise, however, the remainder of the entire student body is shown simply sitting around and partying all day. One such party was the "S.H.I.T. Party", which consists a huge party filled with dancing and music, and during this party the actual band, The Ringers, performed their song "Keepin' Your Head Up". Upon learning of the event, several of the Harmon fraternity members and their girlfriends arrive. They confront Monica, at Bartleby's side, and Hoyt trips the fire suppression system, which, upon raining water down on the S.H.I.T.-head revellers, collectively decide to have a "wet T-shirt party".

Word of this unauthorized campus, obstructing his aspiration of an adjacent park-like "buffer zone to keep intellect in and ignorance out" soon makes its way to the Dean of the nearby Harmon College, Dean Van Horne. Later, Bartleby is surprised when the parents of S.H.I.T. students arrive at the campus (a flyer had been distributed by Hoyt Ambrose of Harmon inviting the parents of South Harmon students to a "Parents' Day").
Still pursuing his agenda of an adjacent park-like setting to augment the Harmon campus, a falsely righteously indignant Van Horne then arrives. Also present are officers of the state police who observe the situation and determine that no criminal activity is in progress. Van Horne then proceeds to unilaterally and conclusorily announce to all of the parents and students present that the "school" is a scam.

Deferring to Van Horne's apparent, but ultimately-proven-to-be-illusory authority, Bartleby concedes to his parents the scheme about South Harmon, and the South Harmon students accompany their disappointed parents away. Disappointing his father once again, Bartleby feels that all hope is lost. He rides his bike to the now roped-off campus and stops to look through the various mailpieces placed on the "school's" front stoop. Bartleby discovers to his surprise that one of the envelopes contains a letter which is a notice of the scheduling of an accreditation hearing regarding South Harmon's petition before the Ohio Board of Accreditation. Schrader had secretly applied to the state board on behalf of South Harmon. He has decided that despite his skepticism, he now wants to be a part of South Harmon, or as Schrader puts it, "I want to be a S.H.I.T. head!".

The Ohio Board of Accreditation schedules an administrative tribunal to conduct a hearing to consider the merits of the application on behalf of South Harmon. During the hearing, at which Rory ensures the entire South Harmon student body is in attendance, Bartleby makes a speech about following their own dreams, and not being restricted to what the school allows them to do. He claims schools such as Harmon College are great--but they limit the creativity of students, whereas at South Harmon, students could find their talents and set their own goals.

The board, after deliberating on the various oratories of the South Harmon petitioners, collectively agrees, and grants the South Harmon Institute of Technology a one-year probation and supervision to further what the board characterizes as South Harmon's 'experimental programs'.

The film concludes with Bartleby being seen off by his family for a new semester at South Harmon, and with Schrader climbing the stairs on his way to teach "Advanced Skepticism 401." An epilogue scene has Van Horne walking to his empty BMW car which then explodes, mob-style, causing Van Horne's eyes to begin welling with tears, ostensibly in sorrow at the loss of his obviously beloved status-symbol vehicle, at which point the scene shifts to a shocked Bartleby next to his fellow South Harmon student (who previously indicated his curricular contribution to be "Learn to Blow Shit up with your Mind") (Freaky Student/Jaison Trumar) who, inexplicably, says to Bartleby, "Told ya."

My Rating : ***
Genre : Comedy/Drama
Director : Steve Pink
Cast : Justin Long, Jonah Hill, Lewis Black, Columbus Black