Silly and altogether implausible, but often brilliantly funny

Rating: 6/10 (27 December 2006)

Carved out from the Shakespearean play 'Twelfth Night' and from the creators who penned the majestic '10 Things I Hate About You', comes 'She's The Man', a cutesy and asinine teen comedy romp about nickelodeon starlet Amanda Bynes who disguises as a guy to get into the soccer team of her choice. Through a reverse mandatory make-over moment by a gay helper, she assumes the identity of her brother Sebastian and moves in with the boys, clumsily falling for her roommate Duke (Channing Tatum) who is the star of the soccer team.
It should not be a gross overstatement to say that the relative success of 'She's The Man' rests squarely on the apt shoulders of its titular actress, Amanda Bynes. As Viola/Sebastian, she is impressively uninhibited and brave, going the extra mile at every point in the script, goofing about, suffering pratfalls and generally making a fool out of herself in trying to imitate the way she thinks guys act. This includes swearing, manly pats on the back, ogling girls and the whole shebang, sans post-workout showers for obvious reasons. The goldmine of the film undoubtedly stems from the classic absurdist situational comedy in the chaos of cross-dressing and pretending to be someone else, all of which Bynes captures very well, if a little too spastic and exaggerated  but I do think this is the way the bard intended it to be. Few supporting performances are noteworthy and blink and you will miss Vinnie Jones.
The messages of the film are no-holds-barred clear and it is underpinned with the rolling subtitle that says 'Personality triumphs over looks'. Viola is simultaneously battling prejudice and chauvinism in the form of a sexist coach who rejected her from the soccer team on account of being a girl. "If you can't join them, be them,", she implausibly reasons and tries out as her brother for a competing school's team while he is conveniently in London for two weeks. There is in this way a soft feminist touch that creeps up again toward the end when it's redemption time in the form of an epic ultimate soccer game in which Viola gets her chance to shine. The whole set-up from scene 01 to the end note is altogether implausible and ridiculously sketched out with so many gaping plot holes you think the film will fall flat at any moment  luckily, it remains afloat... just.
Forget that nobody notices Viola's absence while she is busy spending two weeks dressed up as her brother at another high school, and forget that her parents barely recognise her simply because she has her hair up in a male wig. Forget a wide array of things in fact, and you would probably do best to leave your brain at home for 'She's The Man', a comedy so sophomoric and asinine that it has zero cross-over appeal in terms of its limited teenybobber audience. However what is lacks in satiric adult edge or subtlety, it often rigorously makes up for in sheer goofball fun during which you cannot help but chuckle. On top of this, Bynes remains an extremely likable protagonist and I felt an almost unreasonable happiness for her when her roommate (a fumbling, inept but sexy Channing Tatum) and his hard-boiled soccer friends finally warmed up to her/him.
'She's the Man' does not measure up to '10 Things About You'  in fact, it barely deserves to be mentioned in the same sentence as the former. It may help if you are partial to soccer (and I am, a little bit) and can stomach the exaggerated antics of a former nickelodeon starlet. There are literally stereotypes by the bucketload, both in characters and scenarios, but weed through the worst ones (like the over-the-top geeky lonely science girl) and there is definite fun to be had.
6 out of 10