A retelling of Twelfth Night in an American Prepschool

Rating: 7/10 (1 December 2013)

Upon approaching this film I ask the question if one were to take a Shakespearian play, change the setting to an American Prep School, scrap the dialogue, with the exception of a few classic lines, and replace it with modern English, and rework the plot so that it is appropriate to the setting, then is it still Shakespeare? The answer is a definite 'no', though it is acceptable to say that it was based on Shakespeare. When asking this question, most people immediately thought of 10 Things I Hate About You (Taming of the Shrew), though this movie is inspired by Twelfth Night. I will be writing about Twelfth Night later (as I have recently watched the 1995 version of the film) so I will focus instead on this film.
It is not a bad film, if one can handle the complete butchering of Shakespeare, but then again, Shakespeare is hardly original himself. To me Shakespeare's skill lies in his plots (which he borrows from multiple sources at times) and his masterful use of the English language. Turning the play into an American romantic comedy does not really do it justice, however the plot is substantially better than boy gets girl, boy loses girl, and boy gets girl again.
The film is about a girl Viola (the name is taken from Shakespeare) who loves playing soccer, but when her school's soccer team is cut due to lack of interest, she is devastated. However, when her brother (Sebastian – Shakespeare) decides to skip the country and go to England for band practice (in the play they are separated in a ship wreck) she uses the opportunity (they are twins) to pretend to be him and start at his school (Ilyria High, which is a take off of the country in which Twelfth Night is set). At the school she bunks with Duke Orsino (the name is taken also from Shakespeare, however he is not a Duke, he is just called Duke) and has to manipulate things so that she is not discovered.
Another thing that differs is the subplots. The only major subplot in this film is the principle and another student trying to uncover what Viola is up to, and attempt to expose her as a fraud. Of course they fail, but then Viola is in the end forced to come clean, especially when Sebastian returns. Malvolio does appear in the film, but he is a pet spider, so the whole Malvolio, Sir Toby Belch, and Sir Andrew subplot does not exist. Another difference, well it is not so much a difference, but a cutting of the original, is when Sebastian returns and Olivia runs up to him and kisses him. In the play the scene is drawn out a lot more, where as in the movie it is only a few seconds.
The final scene, where Viola is forced to come clean, is played out on the soccer field where Sebastian finds himself playing soccer when he is hopeless and Viola is stuck on the side lines. In the end everything turns out quite well. Instead of the main characters all getting married, they all 'get together' in that they become girlfriend and boyfriend, though this does not come anywhere near to the Shakespearian everybody getting married. As for a film, I enjoyed it, and I would say that it is a good introduction to Shakespeare, as long as people know that this is what it is based upon, but as a film standing alone by itself, it is still good.