it was OK

Rating: 6/10 (3 April 2006)

This is what I call a "happy" movie - the setting is bright and colorful and sunny, the music that is played is very "now", and everyone is perfectly groomed and dressed (and the guys all happen to be really good looking). Even when there is a fight or a character is unhappy, the movie turns it into a laugh, and it twists the character's problems into an entertaining mess that you watch unravel, reflecting how Shakespeare wrote his comedies. This was a clever remake, although it did not stay very true to Twelfth Night; it used some of the same names, and it used the concept of Viola dressing up as a boy, but that's basically it (in Twelfth Night, Viola dresses up as Cesario, not her brother Sebastian). Nonetheless, the changes that they made in this adaptation were affective in modernizing the story for a 21st century audience. But even though this was an enjoyable movie, it did have some flaws. First of all, who would believe that Viola dressed up as a boy is actually Sebastian? I understand that this was a tough obstacle for them to work around, but it definitely was hard for me to suspend my disbelief when none of the characters in the movie could tell that she was a girl - or even a gay guy. Also, this movie really lacks character development. In the end, the jocks are jocks, the fake girls are still fake. I just felt like this movie was sort of shallow because of that - it just stuck with some basic teen drama, and it didn't delve into any deep issues, and it barely tapped into any of my emotions. If the plot had more meaning, I would be able to take it a little more seriously and it would have been more memorable.
Overall, I did end up enjoying this movie. It definitely is not the movie of the year, and Iprobably will not remember it for long, but it is worth your time if you want to have a good laugh or you just want to have a girls night out.