She’s
The Man stars former Nickelodeon Diva Amanda Bynes in a teen comedy take of Shakespeare’s
Twelfth Night. You have to figure that the Bard has done enough spinning in his
grave to have burrowed somewhere near the earth’s core, surprisingly however,
She’s The Man will probably only have William rolling his eyes and shaking
his head with half a resigned smile. Alas what art thy to do?
Though
I took my young pretween daughters (huge Nick-buffs) along, I was pleased to find
that She’s The Man aims beyond the typical Hillary Duff stuff, and is a film
that chaperoning parents may just enjoy (depending upon their mood). Written by
Karen McCullah Lutz (Legally Blonde) and responsible for penning the even more
mature Shakespeare-inspired 10 Things I Hate About You (A film I actually enjoyed,
though I have to earmark it a guilty pleasure because the other zbone-staffers
have all voiced their disdain). Perhaps it was because it was my first exposure
to both Julia Stiles and Heath Ledger, but I remember liking it a bit more than
this one - even though She’s The Man is borderline thumbs up material.
Bynes
plays Viola, a jock chick enamored with Soccer who receives a Shocker when her
school decides to drop their girls soccer program. As you know, Viola takes the
opportunity of her brother’s absence to enroll in his new prep school and
join the boys soccer team at least until the big game with her former school where
she can kick some ball with her former boyfriend.. Naturally such fluffy stuff
requires a tricky bit of Beckham bending - the strapping down of boobs, a hairdo,
paste-on sideburns as well as a drop in her vocal register. It’s really up
to Bynes to sell this thing, and though she’s not always up to it, she comes
close enough for the film to work. Working against her is the fact that she makes
a strange and unconvincing-looking boy (sort of a cross between Davy Jones of
the Monkees and the youngest Osmond brother - I want to say Jimmy?) But to be
fair she does have a few shining moments between concealing her gender and dealing
with the complicated love triangle that develops between herself, her new roommate
(Channing Tatum) and the girl of his dreams (Laura Ramsey.)
I
do respect the fact that Bynes has resisted the impulse to ride on her looks and
keeps pecking away at learrning to do comedy. Considering her broad and clumsy
turns in Big Fat Liar and What a Girl Wants, she’s made remarkable progress
with She’s The Man. Bynes is 20 and it won’t be long until she’s
going to have to cut it as an adult actress or wind up on the child-actor scrap
heap. Here’s hoping she doesn’t take the Princess Diaries to gang-slut
route that counterpart Anne Hathaway attempted with the dreadful Havoc. In fairness
I guess you’re got to give her props for holding her own in Brokeback.
She’s
The Man is all just a big set-up for a bunch of high school hijinx and awkward
revelations (there were a few tacky moments where truths are learned via the peeking
down the gym shorts prying game) enough to have perhaps justified a 13 being slapped
on it’s PG, but who am I to moralize? Innocence is not what it used to be,
let’s face it. Obviously what comes about isn’t exactly Shakespeare,
we don’t get the piercing look into human nature that separates the good
the bard and the ugly, but I came away close enough to satisfied and the girls
thought it was awesome. So there you have it. Besides it does have David Cross
in it - it can’t be all bad.
