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October 06, 2006
Off the Shelf: She's the Man
Couldn't sleep again, and flipped on the DVD player to see what was hanging around in it. Turns out it was already loaded with She's the Man, starring Amanda Bynes (Thanks Jenn).
We first saw this movie in the movie theaters in San Francisco. As a matter of fact, it might be the last movie we've been able to watch in theaters. Originally, we were supposed to go catch a film that was a part of the Asian American Film Festival (we usually try to catch a few every year), but, this being the first year with Naomi, we weren't quite used to how long it takes to prepare her and leave her with Jenn's parents. By the time we got the city (after the usual weekend traffic on the bridge), there was no way we were making it to the other movie, so this was the alternative.
Even though I personally didn't have much expectations about this movie, I've always thought that Amanda Bynes is a pretty good actress for her age and has some very good comic timing as well. I'd only seen her on TV in What I like about You, with Jennie Garth.
What I didn't know about this movie was that it came from the writers of 10 things I hate about you, one of my favorite teen movies, and they used a similar approach: Take a Shakespeare play (in this case, Twelfth Night) and transpose it to a modern day situation. They don't do a literal translation, the way Baz Luhrmann did with Romeo + Juliet, but they try to make the situation as close as possible, keep character names (which I've always liked because you get some uniquely named characters) and throw in references here and there, which are always fun to spot.
I'm going to cheat here and use the film's tagline which sums up the plot rather well: Everybody has a secret. . .Duke wants Olivia who likes Sebastian who is really Viola whose brother is dating Monique so she hates Olivia who's with Duke to make sebastian jealous who is really Viola who's crushing on Duke who thinks she's a guy. . .
But the comedy that Bynes brings to her role, as well as many other actors in this movie, are what makes this movie a treat in my opinion. On second viewing, we realized her movie ex-boyfriend Justin (played by Robert Hoffman) is actually a regular on MTV's Wild N Out, so he obviously has some improv comedy skills. With my soft spot for romantic comedies, this was one movie I was happy to rewatch.
Posted by spoof747 at October 6, 2006 01:51 PM
Comments
personally I'm a fan of 'What a Girl Wants'-- it didn't hurt that Kelly Preston played Amanda's mom either....
Posted by: Gil at October 28, 2006 10:40 AM