Bloodless Coup

"I See a Kitten, Gasping for Air"

So hearing how much I loved Amanda Bynes in Hairspray (and I loved her soooooooooooo much), little bro suggested I check out She's The Man. Well, I watched that tonight and I've got to say - it's a trainwreck. The less said about the script the better. Someone thought to turn a very serious Shakespeare play into a madcap cross-dressing soccer comedy? Ummm ... yeah. And really apart from a few of Eunice's lines, there aren't many memorable zingers in the dialogue (and actually on paper those might not be so hot either - but Emily Perkins lights up that role). That said, it is such an explosion of plot and artifice that it gives the actors a lot to play with and it turns out that this ensemble is quite good and really easy to like. Bynes has loads of charisma, and there's not a clunker in the (very big) supporting cast. So as long as you can watch each scene play out on its own it is indeed rather entertaining. But in those sections when you can't distract yourself from the script (which sadly includes pretty much the entire last half hour of the fill) it's hard to watch. Well, you can watch it fine. Bynes lights up the screen and Channing Tatum is topless for most of the film. Just watch the last half hour with the volume off (you probably will still know every single move the script takes at that point).