Modern day Tootsie!

Rating: 6/10 (18 January 2007)

Film Review: She's the Man
Cast: Amanda Bynes, Channing Tatum, Laura Ramsey and Vinnie Jones
We're not all who we say we are
This is the story of a girl who masquerades as a boy to play in a soccer team.
Viola Hastings, played by Amanda Bynes, is not your average collegiate girl. When she decides to replace her brother Sebastian Hastings, in his elite boarding school she has to take the caper all the way.
The real Sebastian Hastings is busy fine-tuning his artistic skills in London for a few weeks. Viola, keen to impress on the soccer field, decides it would be a fantastic idea to impersonate Sebastian.
From sharing the boys' dorms and showers, to some sticky gender relations, this film does a fine job of examining the peculiarities of the sexes.
It's certainly tough predicament when you're dressed as a boy, in love with a boy who happens to be your roommate, and all the girls are besotted by you.
In the spirit of films like Big Momma and Tootsie, in reverse, She's the Man is a fun teenage comedy replete with clichéd gags and a handful of new ones.
The film builds up to an exciting crunch-match between Sebastian's college Illyria and Cornwall. Naturally there are a few last-minute revelations.
This film certainly doesn't take itself seriously, nor does the audience. It is what it is and it scores just fine in the ratings department.