Movie rating: 1 Star

She's The Man

Because she can't play football for her school, tomboy Viola (Bynes) decides to disguise herself as her brother Sebastian (Kirk), who has disappeared to London to escape his nutty girlfriend, and join his school's football team. Sharing a room with the hunky Duke (Tatum), Viola has a number of problems to deal with: she fancies Duke but can't drop the charade of being a boy; Duke fancies Viola's friend and school babe Olivia (Ramsey); Olivia in turn has the hots for Viola because she/he is very open and easy to talk to, and Sebastian's unhinged ex-girlfriend Monique (Alex Breckinridge) won't accept it's over and is determined to win Sebastian back.
After adapting Shakespeare's The Taming Of The Shrew into the terribly average 10 Things I Hate About You, Karen McCullah Lutz once again turns to the playwright for inspiration and changes Twelfth Night into a pasty teen movie that is so low on laughs, you need to be a limbo expert just to get a sympathetic snort. Girls who like the idea that they can do whatever boys can do will delight in the idea of She's The Man, but when the anti-feminist under lying message is "inside every girl, there's a boy" (no double entendres, please), they may come away a little confused and a little surprised that it is written by two women. The performances aren't elevated above the shabby, lazy writing as Bynes - looking a lot like a teenage Paul McCartney (mop-top n' all) - lacks everything a lead should be (talent being foremost) while the wooden Tatum is an insult to acting. If you like a Mrs-Doubtfire-in-reverse-high-school-movie, this one is for you.

Review by Gavin Burke | 09:00 | Tuesday 4th April 2006 | Movie Review

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