A sweet, gentle teenage comedy that has a noble (if somewhat heavy-handed) message about tolerance, "Angus" is a nice surprise.

The main drawback here is that it's so predictable — you will anticipate everything that happens several minutes before it does. And as the film progresses, the film's humor lessens as the sentimentality becomes thicker.

Still, a movie that is this easygoing and cheerful in its efforts to let the teenage audience know that "normal" isn't really all that normal after all, is hard to dismiss.

Charlie Talbert plays the title character, overweight and miserable but with a big heart and a quick wit — as well as some talent for science and football.

The love-from-afar he has worshiped since elementary school is cheerleader Melissa (Ariana Richards, of "Jurassic Park"). And the bane of his life is quarterback/-class president Rick (James Van Der Beek), a bully of the first order.

Meanwhile, Angus lives with — and gets advice from — his truck-driver mother (Kathy Bates) and his 73-year-old retired grandfather (George C. Scott), who is about to marry a much-younger woman and is positively giddy about it . . . when he isn't falling alseep in his chair.

Angus also gets advice from his geeky best friend (Chris Owen), especially when Angus, via a practical joke, finds himself king to Melissa's queen at the upcoming fall dance.

Most of the way, the film is bolstered by witty dialogue (though it gets a bit vulgar at times), and there are some very good character touches. The film does fall down a bit in places — such as when it makes fun of the physical appearance of a weird science teacher late in the film, which seems to run counter to everything the film is striving to say.

Scott and Bates don't have a lot to do, but it's nice to see them. Rita Moreno, though, as a dance teacher, is utterly wasted in one scene.

All the young actors are terrific, however, especially Talbert, who should have a long career ahead of him.

"Angus" is rated PG-13 for violence, profanity and vulgarity.