A boy named Amanda saves flick

March 20, 2006 —

It is probably safe to assume that the audience for She's the Man is not terribly familiar with the works of Shakespeare, outside of Romeo & Juliet or Julius Caesar. So, to be fair to all of the teenage girls reading this, I will not spend much time discussing Twelfth Night, the Shakespearean play that lends its plot to She's the Man.

Rather, I will just go straight into what is wrong with this movie - and that is surprisingly little. My first assumption was that this movie would not meet the low expectations that I set upon buying my ticket at the movie theater box office. My second assumption was that I would be the only male in the theater watching the movie. I was right on only one of these.

She's the Man is a story of mistaken identity, a theme common in Shakespeare's work. Amanda Bynes plays Viola, who has a twin brother named Sebastian. Long story short, Viola has to pretend to be her brother at school while he is in London.

Well, she doesn't have to pretend to be her brother, but she chooses to in order to get on the boys' soccer team. As expected, wackiness ensues as she takes on the life of a high school boy.

Viola manages to fool everyone, including her roommate Duke, and also the resident hottie Olivia, who falls for who she thinks is Sebastian. And to complicate things even more, Viola, posing as Sebastian, falls for Duke. Really, this is a lot easier to keep straight while watching the movie, which did a fine job making me believe a storyline that should have been unbelievable.

The only problem I have with She's the Man is that I cannot figure out why it is enjoyable. I was embarrassed when I bought my ticket. I was embarrassed when the opening credits came on the screen. I was even more embarrassed during the movie. Why then, during a movie I am ashamed to admit having seen, did I laugh at the jokes and think, "This is money well spent" while not once sliding down in my seat to avoid being seen? I honestly do not know.

Maybe it was Bynes, who I have half-heartedly followed since she hit it big on Nickelodeon with the aptly titled The Amanda Show. She has a quirky charm that either makes her the cute girl you never knew or the annoying teen you want to slap. Thankfully, she fits into the former category for me.

Maybe it was the principal played by David Cross, one of the stars of the under-appreciated sitcom Arrested Development and a man who could make an infomercial for fingernail buffers funny.

Or maybe it was everything combined - actors worth watching, writers worth listening to, and a plot worth following, even if it is just stolen from something that has already been done. But even though She's the Man is based on Twelfth Night, Shakespeare this ain't. It would be foolish to compare the movie to the play because only one of those will remain a timeless classic. But anyone who wants to just enjoy a goofy, ridiculous movie in the present, She's the Man might be for you.