Movie review: Actresses can’t get decent laugh in ‘You Again’

Disney’s effort to turn Kristen Bell into America’s Sweetheart reaches its tipping point with “You Again,” a flat romantic comedy that packages her in a funny setup and surrounds her with funny people.

That the experiment tips over backwards isn’t wholly Bell’s fault; she’s certainly more interesting to watch here than she was in “When in Rome.” But the laughs are few in this variation on a “Mean Girls” theme.

Marni (Bell) was mercilessly bullied in high school, which was the last thing a kid with acne, braces, glasses and a really bad haircut needed.

Her chief tormentor was J.J., the hotheaded cheerleader played with a cruel verve by Odette Yustman. She was the one who turned Marni’s initials – MOO – into a final humiliation.

“Moo” she was and “Moo” she might have remained. Instead, Marni has grown up to be a successful public relations professional, a vice president at 26.

But a summons home brings back the ugly old days. Brother Will (James Wolk) is marrying this adorably sweet nurse the whole family adores: Joanna, who used to be J.J.

She can’t for the life of her remember Marni, the “loser” she scorned — or so she says. Marni can’t accept “Satan’s spawn as my sister-in-law.”

But before she can confess her fear and loathing to her family, Mom (Jamie Lee Curtis) discovers her own wedding nemesis: She and Joanna’s aunt (Sigourney Weaver) had high-school issues. And the aunt, too, is acting as if nothing happened between them.

Whatever that setup promises is lost in Moe Jelline’s joke-starved script. The clash of the older women has little sting and aside from the “money” moment — when Marni figures out that Joanna does remember her — neither do the slings and arrows of the younger pair.

Director Andy Fickman (“Race to Witch Mountain”) tries the tricks of the desperate: karaoke, food fights and star cameos by Dwayne Johnson, an unfunny Kristin Chenoweth and an Oscar winner in the finale.

He even trots out America’s granny, Betty White. What’s it say about your movie when even Betty White can’t find a decent laugh?