Review of She's the Man (2006) by Adam F — 14 Sep 2014

While "She's the Man" isn't entirely convincing with its gender switching and it stumbles more than once towards the end, it's still an enjoyable film. The setup is that Viola (Amanda Bynes) wants to prove and improve her soccer skills but isn't allowed to by her parents so she takes the place of her brother while he skips the first few weeks of school to goof off. She pretends to be a boy, which leads to awkward romances, confusion and comedy.

The key to what works in the film is the relationship between Amanda Bynes and her roommate/love interest Channing Tatum. The two have good chemistry and they elevate this material some of the predictable jokes and lame setups. The film adapts Shakespeare's work pretty loosely without forcing in references to the original material so it doesn't feel like a cheap knockoff, but there's some really inexplicable decisions that were made in the story and it's these strange choices that weaken the film. For the convenience of the confusion-related comedy moments for example, Viola wears a wig as her disguise instead of simply cutting her hair, a decision that makes no sense on her behalf. It's by no means a great film, but it's fun to watch the plot unfold so it's hard not to pop it in your Dvd player without cracking a smile. (Dvd, October 10, 2012).