SHE'S THE MAN review

Review by Paul Stathakis | March 22, 2006

“If you want to chase your dreams, you need to break the rules.”

Aman­da Bynes plays a girl who dis­guis­es her­self as a boy so that she can play on the school’s men’s soc­cer team. Her room­mate nev­er sus­pects her dis­guise, and even when she for­gets to speak with a deep man-like tone, she gets away with it. This com­e­dy is unre­al­is­tic for adults, but fun for teenagers. Bynes is adorable and she will appeal to a crowd that is will­ing to go along with the events that unfold in this fee­ble teen comedy.

The sto­ry is com­plex but some­how makes sense. Duke (Chan­ning Tatum) is Sebastian’s room­mate who real­ly is Vio­la (Aman­da Bynes). Vio­la changes her appear­ance to look like her broth­er when he secret­ly flees to Lon­don to per­form with his band. The plot then thick­ens as Vio­la faces heat from two women: Olivia (Lau­ra Ram­sey) and Monique (Alex Breck­en­ridge). Monique is Sebastian’s ex-girl­friend who wants Sebas­t­ian back in her life, at all costs. Olivia is with Duke to make Sebas­t­ian jeal­ous. Of course, both women are not aware that Vio­la is pre­tend­ing to be Sebas­t­ian as they fight to win his love. Imag­ine Sebastian’s reac­tion when he finds out about all of this. It would be hard to pic­ture him as not being shocked.

She’s The Man finds ways to be amus­ing amid poor dia­logue and a hand­ful of cheap sup­port­ing per­for­mances. Con­sid­er the role of the school’s head­mas­ter, Prin­ci­pal Gold (David Cross). There is a moment in which Vio­la, dis­guised as her broth­er, meets with the head­mas­ter. He sings the school’s theme song as part of wel­com­ing Sebas­t­ian to the acad­e­my. This ridicu­lous moment serves as proof that the writ­ers want to depict the head­mas­ter as a dorky man, and they suc­ceed at doing so. But is Prin­ci­pal Gold sup­posed to be a fun­ny char­ac­ter? Does he bring any­thing remote­ly inter­est­ing to this movie? The answer is no. How­ev­er, he has at least one fun­ny moment near the end of She’s The Man, when he appears at a soc­cer game with a megaphone.

Although the idea of Bynes alter­ing her appear­ance to look like a boy wears off quick­ly, she is nev­er less ener­getic than in pre­vi­ous scenes. She deliv­ers not a flaw­less per­for­mance, but one that is con­sis­tent until the film reach­es its pre­dictable con­clu­sion. This is strict­ly a teen com­e­dy where the clich

 

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