She's the Man

I look forward to seeing teen actress Amanda Bynes growing into more adult roles. She's got a likeable screen presence, she's obviously talented, and she's attractive, yet realistically so and not overly made up. The main reason I look forward to Bynes growing into more adult roles, however, is so that she will hopefully be offered some better films to go along with her obvious potential. Her current film, She's the Man, is the latest in a long line of dopey teen comedies that take "inspiration" from classic stories or plays. Such past examples include Ten Things I Hate About You (The Taming of the Shrew) and Whatever It Takes (Cyrano DeBergerac). The inspiration this time around is Shakespeare's Twelfth Night, although it could easily be argued that the film takes more inspiration from the mostly forgotten 80s teen comedy, Just One of the Guys, which shares many of the same themes. She's the Man is not exactly unwatchable, but it's just so mediocre that the whole thing seems pointless. Add this to the fact that the movie seems to be 15 minutes too long, thanks to the screenwriters Karen McCullah Lutz and Kirsten Smith (Legally Blonde) insistence on giving their film multiple climaxes, and you've got an unmemorable movie experience that will appeal only to very undiscriminating preteen girls.

As tomboyish high school senior Viola (Amanda Bynes) prepares to enter her final year of school with dreams of winning the championship soccer trophy filling her head, she is shocked to discover that the girl's team has been cut completely from her school, and her unsympathetic boyfriend Justin (Robert Hoffman) is no help at all. With her ditzy mother (Julie Haggerty) pushing her to forget about soccer and concentrate on being a lady, Viola is getting desperate, and sees her window of opportunity when her brother Sebastian (James Kirk) sneaks off to London for two weeks to perform in a Battle of the Bands-style competition instead of attending his new private boarding school. Since no one at his school has met him, Viola puts together a plan where she will disguise herself as him, attend school in his place, and try out for the soccer team so she can beat her old school's team and prove to them that women are just as good at the sport as guys.

Of course, things quickly turn complicated. Viola develops a secret crush for her handsome roommate, Duke (Channing Tatum), but of course, she can't blow her secret before the big game. Furthermore, the most popular girl at the school, Olivia (Laura Ramsey), falls in love with Viola's "Sebastian" identity, even though Duke is secretly in love with Olivia. Not only that, Viola must deal with the real Sebastian's angry and stuck up girlfriend, Monique (Alex Breckenridge), who is constantly growing upset that "Sebastian" seems to be ignoring her all the time. Will Viola get to play in the big game and show up the boyfriend who shunned her? Will she be able to keep her identity a secret long enough? Will she ever get to express her true feelings to Duke? I'm sure the answers to these questions will be very surprising to those of you who have never watched a movie before.

Like many recent comedies that have forced its star to remain in the disguise of the opposite sex for most of its running time, She's the Man does not work at its most basic level because we never once believe the disguise, nor do we believe that anyone would be fooled by the trick unless they had the I.Q. of Jell-O Pudding. Okay, Amanda Bynes does look slightly more convincing as a guy than say Martin Lawrence trying to pass himself off as a woman in Big Momma's House 2, but the big problem here is that she looks way too young as a guy. Her "Sebastian" looks like he'd be 12 or 13-years old. Seeing "him" surrounded by a large number of actual guys makes the illusion becomes even shakier. I will give Bynes this, at least her "Sebastian" actually looks like he belongs at school. All of the other characters are played by guys in their mid and late 20s and don't even look like high school students. Our sense of disbelief is pushed even further when the real Sebastian returns home from London, and the movie expects us to believe that everyone can't tell the two apart even though they look nothing alike. This is the kind of movie that relies entirely on the stupidity of its entire cast in order for it to work, which is commonly known as the Idiot Plot. If the characters showed even the slightest bit of reason or competence, the movie would be over in less than 20 minutes.

If the movie itself is entertaining, I can usually overlook the Idiot Plot. She's the Man, however, is just not very funny. The movie keeps on throwing Viola into situations where her true identity is threatened to be revealed, and then does nothing funny with them, or sometimes chooses to do absolutely nothing at all. A good example is the sequence around the middle of the film where Viola is at a carnival, and must constantly dodge her friends as she switches back and forth between her two identities, racing around trying to be in two places at once. While potentially amusing, the film does not set up any humor in the situation, it is simply Bynes running herself exhausted and trying to dodge being discovered by her own friends and family and "Sebastian's" friends. The movie does thankfully keep a rapid pace throughout, so at least the scenes that don't work at all don't hang around for too long. That is at least until the ending, which is dragged out with so many climaxes and wrapping up so many loose ends that it's almost like we're watching the ending to 2 or 3 different movies. Couldn't they have found a way to wrap up everything in one big ending? Everything that happens in the last 15 minutes could have been resolved in about 5 or 6 minutes, making the movie mercifully shorter.

The one thing that does lift the film up from being a complete waste of time is Bynes herself, who is constantly likeable and has a great screen presence. Even though we never fully believe her illusion as passing herself off as a guy, she at least gives it her all, and never comes across as annoying like so many comic actors do when they are assuming the role of the opposite gender. She has so much energy and a natural charm to her performance that you almost wish it was being used in a better movie. The rest of the cast are passable, but since they are forced to play idiots, it's hard to get behind them as much as the lead star. The one actor who does stand out is Channing Tatum as Duke. When he's not being stupid, he's actually quite sensitive and sweet in his performance, and you can see why Viola would fall for him. Of course, he looks a bit too old to still be in high school, but hey so does everyone else in this movie except for Bynes, so at least he doesn't look too out of place.

The charm of Amanda Bynes can only last so long before you start to realize that there's really nothing else happening in this movie. She's the Man is a parade of half-baked comic ideas that are not exploited to their full potential. But then, perhaps I'm not the person who should be reviewing this movie, as I don't think it was made for me. I'm sure Bynes' younger fans will get a huge kick out of this movie. The audience I saw it with, which was made up of mostly preteen girls, certainly seemed to. It's at least mostly clean and harmless, so parents will have little to worry about letting them see the film. But really, that does not excuse just how sloppy and uninspired everything is. I highly doubt I'll remember She's the Man 6 months from now, but if I do, I'll probably remember a solid lead performance and nothing much else.

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