Most Hollywood films that cast up-and-coming musicians as supporting characters have agendas. Some of these films hide it cleverly and some do not. “Undiscovered” does not even make an attempt to hide its agenda.

This film, known to most as “that movie with Ashlee Simpson in it,” is memorable only for that reason. Even if we ignored that the executive producer is her father and the original title of the movie was changed to match the name of one of her songs, the flimsy characters and cheesy, shallow story line act as weak facades for the distasteful self-promotion that are Simpson’s on-screen musical performances.

The story centers around singer Luke Falcon (Steven Strait), who is struggling to make it. He is described in the movie as Jeff Buckley crossed with Elvis Costello, although he comes across more like a grisly version of John Mayer.

Luke ends up mysteriously achieving success and his character gets tested. Although this is the story’s focus, the plot keeps jutting over to the performances of a certain supporting actress. One must endure Simpson’s singing three times throughout the movie – Luke’s songs aren’t much more prevalent.

Simpson plays the cheery sidekick who always seems to pop up and say the right thing whenever the lead characters are having emotional difficulties, but she isn’t completely terrible in this role. In fact, none of the performances themselves are too bad, but the script is. The characters come across as bland and uninteresting. These personalities seal in the utter cheesiness of this film, appearing exactly like stereotypes – the shallow, bimbo model, the money-hungry record producer and the saintly protagonist.

Ironically, this film is about hardworking, supposedly talented, musicians. When Simpson’s character, Clea, finally gets her break at the film’s end, the parallels of her character’s achievements to her own could not be more different.

One gets a squeaky clean picture of the ins and outs of the L.A. music scene and the film’s exploration of broken egos and relationships is as uninsightful and innocent as a “Brady Bunch” episode. As if this weren’t already enough like a made-for-MTV movie, director Meiert Avis (whose film credits consist only of music videos), insists on so many close-up shots in every scene, one literally begins to get dizzy. This forcedly intimate approach does not result in a feeling of intense realness. Instead, it’s unsettling.

While this film aims to appeal to today’s seemingly boundless market of young and aspiring entertainers by tapping into the niche that “American Idol” so successfully exploited, it doesn’t accurately represent its audience. In its failed attempt to portray the realities of the entertainment industry while also trying to push a musician’s career, “Undiscovered” comes across as original and heartfelt as one of Ashlee Simpson’s songs.