Movie Reviews
She's the Man
Rated PG-13 for some sexual material.
reviewed by Christopher Lyon
Nope, it’s not another movie about a sex change operation
or gay cow folk. Instead, it’s another teen girl romp very
loosely adapted from a Shakespeare play, this time “Twelfth
Night.” Amanda Bynes (TV’s “What I Like About
You,” 2003’s “What a Girl Wants”) stars
as the girl disguised as a “dude” who falls for a guy
who likes her as a girl. I think.
The Story
Viola Hastings (Bynes) is a star on her soccer team with dreams of playing in college. But when her school cuts the girls’ soccer program and the coach won’t let her try out for the guys’ team, she hatches a plan. She will impersonate her twin brother at his new boarding school, make their soccer team as a guy, then shame her chauvinistic ex-boyfriend by beating his soccer team.
Things she thinks of: looking like a guy by getting a wig, make-up, and fake ’burns; walking and talking like a “dude;” getting help from her hairdresser and two girlfriends. Things she doesn’t think of: having to share a room with a “hot” guy; showers and changing in the locker room; running into her brother’s ex-girlfriend and having to dodge the creepy headmaster (David Cross).
When she doesn’t make first-string on the team right away, Viola agrees to help her roommate Duke get a date with the girl he likes in exchange for him teaching her how to play better soccer. But while Viola (pretending to be Sebastian) is falling for Duke, who likes Olivia, Oliva is falling for Sebastian (who is really Viola). And what happens when the real Sebastian gets back from his secret trip to London? Oh, the hilarity.
The Verdict (What we thought of the movie on its own)
First of all, is it just me or is every high school student in this movie played by someone in their mid-20s? Only Bynes, nearly 20, looks as if she could still be in high school. I can only assume the rest of these students either have severe glandular problems or are really bad at academics. That would make sense, because the only class any of them actually attend is science lab. And none of them are able to figure out that “Sebastian” is the weirdest looking, talking, walking “dude” ever. Seriously, who would believe Bynes’ performance as a fella? Still, she’s better at looking like a guy than she is at looking like she knows how to play soccer.
Okay, I know all that stuff isn’t the point. It’s about the laughs and the romance, right? After all, this a flick for tween and teen girls. And, yes, there are some yuks buried in this awkward little movie. David Cross is funny as the quite odd headmaster. Some of the twisty situations Viola finds herself in are giggle-worthy. But mostly, it’s just completely unbelievable without being obnoxiously “bad.” This is a very, very slight film that scatters quickly from the memory after the lights go up.
It also leans heavily on some sexual situations and comments to earn it’s rating. Lots of girls with cleavage; lots of guys with their shirts off. Bynes making eye-contact with guys’ (off camera) parts in the locker room. Viola trying to convince the guys she’s a dude, too, by kissing other girls, grabbing their backsides, and saying “look at the bootie on that blondie” and “I’d tap that.” On the reverse side, she stares with unsubtle admiration at the buff guys around her. And the big finish where Viola and Sebastian drop pants and lift shirts in full view of a crowded soccer stadium to verify their respective genders. (Nothing is shown.)
Worldview (How the movie’s take on life compares to a biblical perspective)
What does it really mean to be a guy or a girl? In a way, for all its gender jokes and twists, “She’s the Man” ends up saying there are real differences between men and women that go well beyond the physical. A girl might play soccer like one of the guys and eat chicken like a caveman and convince a room full of morons that she’s a “dood,” but she can’t stop being a girl.
I don’t have any problem with girls playing soccer with the guys, but the Bible encourages both genders to work on being real women and/or men from the inside out, starting with a relationship with God. The writer of Proverbs 31 said that traditional feminine beauty is temporary, but a “woman who fears the Lord will be praised.” (Provers 31:30-31) And Peter taught that women will develop their truest beauty from within, calling it “the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God’s sight.” (1 Peter 3:3-4)
Even “She’s the Man” seems to agree that a woman doesn’t need be like a guy to be strong. And she doesn’t need to be weak to be a lady. But to find her truest self, she does need to know who she is in Christ and trust Him to change her, even when she’s smashing a soccer ball.
If you see the movie, questions you can discuss with friends, parents, or just think about yourself:
• Were you ever convinced that anyone would believe Bynes’ as a guy or as a soccer player?
• Your experience: a million laughs or a few tee-hee’s?
• Do you think you could alter your own appearance convincingly enough to fool anyone into thinking you were the opposite sex? Have you ever done so?
• Do you think gender is just physical or are there significant differences between men and women way under the surface? Why?
• What’s your take on what it means to be a real man or real woman? Does the Bible have anything to say about what that means?
• What’s your favorite Shakespeare play? What’s your favorite Shakespeare movie or adaptation?
Copyright © 2005
