In the grand tradition of female makeover films, from “She’s Out of Control” to “The Princess Diaries,” Tom Putnam’s “The Hottie and the Nottie” stars a perfectly adorable girl in the role of the unattractive misfit. Also, Paris Hilton is in it.

More dedicated to the ugly trope than most films of its ilk, “The Hottie and the Nottie” doesn’t stop at hiding its cute “nottie” behind a pair of glasses and a bad haircut. Mr. Putnam and a crack makeup team have veiled Christina Lakin, who plays June Phigg, the best friend of “hottie” Cristabel Abbott (Ms. Hilton), behind a shaggy rug of body hair, nasty teeth, a hair-sprouting mole, and toe fungus. June’s dating life suffers from her extremely poor hygiene, but thanks to the wonders of laser surgery and modern dentistry, she is eventually unearthed as the beautiful girl beneath it all.

Nate Cooper (Joel Moore) has moved to Los Angeles to make sure that happens. A hipster sad sack who has trouble falling for women, Nate has returned to his hometown to find Cristabel, the girl he fell in love with when they were schoolchildren together. Twenty years later, his first-grade crush has grown into the hottest woman in Los Angeles — Paris Hilton. But due to some strange “Hottie and Nottie” clause in the Los Angeles dating rules, Cristabel is abstaining from dating until her unattractive friend can find someone special. Nate immediately makes it his mission to find that someone for her.

A modern update of Shakespeare’s “The Taming of the Shrew” (hold your laughter), “The Hottie and the Nottie” never really explains why Cristabel would do this. In Shakespeare and subsequent updates to the story, the object of desire is prohibited from dating by a parent who first wants to find a match for her difficult sister. Here, Cristabel is just an altruistic masochist, since she can’t stop talking about how much she wants to have sex, but can’t out of loyalty to her friend.

It’s hard to believe that a woman who spends so much time tanning and maintaining her hair extensions would remain so close to a woman so desperately in need of a body wax, but Ms. Hilton takes to her role enthusiastically. Whisper-talking her way through the film, America’s favorite ex-convict makes up for any lack of personality with extra hair tossing. If she looked less like the average bleach blonde trying to make it in Hollywood, it might make sense for a man to spend so much money trying to fix up her friend. But as it stands, it seems like the same amount of money could be invested in tanning and bleaching a new Paris Hilton.

This is irrelevant to Nate, who is determined to win the heart of his elementary school sweetheart. He works his way into Cristabel’s life and buys June a $2,000 spa certificate. Pretty soon June is waxing, Rogaining, and lasering her flaws away. Once she begins to resemble the pretty woman beneath all the hair and tooth decay, it becomes apparent that she has a terrific personality. Ah, the false morality of the makeover film. Being ugly gives you character — as long as it’s in your past.

But before “The Hottie and the Nottie” can find June’s inner and outer beauty, it dwells in some disturbing gross-out humor, including a repeated flirtation with June’s infected big toenail that is particularly punishing.

The film’s general superficiality is especially unfortunate given that both Mr. Moore and Ms. Lankin seem capable of conveying actual emotions. Once Ms. Hilton’s primping and preening bottle-blond hotness is out of the way, the two embark on some interactions that approach poignancy.

Thinly written by Heidi Ferrer (whose slight résumé includes two episodes of “Dawson’s Creek”) and stuffed with flat humor, the film begins as a cinematic ego boost for Ms. Hilton, but by the end even Nate is bored with her. “The Hottie and the Nottie” is yet another feather in the cap of a woman whose career thrives on making millions of dollars on products that no one seems to want.

mkeane@nysun.com