not as good as "10 Things I Hate About You"

Rating: 6/10 (7 September 2006)

First, the good stuff: Amanda Bynes is an extremely talented comic actress. I can easily see her making the kind of light comedies in her 20s that Reese Witherspoon made in her 20s. She has a great expressive (and pretty) face, and a way with a line.
And there were a few good one-liners that surprised me. Jokes I never see coming lift any so-so movie.
But...where it should have been subtle like "10 Things I Hate About You," everything was so broad, parts of it stopped making sense. Like when she's called into the principal's office. Why *is* she called into the principal's office? It's never explained, the scene doesn't move the plot, nor is it particularly funny (except when she gets her wrap caught in the drawer.) The scene's only purpose was to introduce the wacky principal...who really isn't all that important.
Why does she speak like Elvis when she's dressed like a man? Her brother doesn't speak like Elvis, wouldn't she imitate him?
There's a fight in the ladies room which is as needless and unfunny as the fight in the ladies room in "Bringing Down the House." (Only minutes earlier, Amanda was hilariously eating a chicken leg, then the film stoops to this cliché)
It's also unfortunate the film came out after "Bend It Like Beckham" which had these great , dizzying soccer sequences. The soccer in this movie was kind of boring. Furthermore, Keira Knightly was absolutely believable as an ace soccer player, watching Amanda play was kind of like watching some kind of soccer little league.
And the jokes at Eunice's expense were just cheap. Let's make fun of the ugly girl!
The theme of "Twelfth Night" and "Tootsie" is learning to be a better man by being a woman, (or vice versa), the contrivance of getting a man into a dress, or a woman into soccer gear should always be secondary. Here, Viola learns nothing! Not that every film should have a weepy message, but by skipping the theme, the characters just come off as cardboard cut- outs in a contrived story.