She's the Man

She's the Man Information

She's the Man is a 2006 American romantic comedy film directed by Andy Fickman, inspired by William Shakespeare's play Twelfth Night. The film stars Amanda Bynes, Channing Tatum, Laura Ramsey, and Vinnie Jones.

The film centers around teenager Viola Hastings who enters her brother's school in his place, pretending to be male, in order to play with the boys' soccer team.

Plot

Viola Hastings (Amanda Bynes) is a high school soccer player at Cornwall, which has just cut its girls' soccer team. After her request to join the boys team is refused by the misogynistic coach, she finds a way to play for Cornwall's rival, Illyria. Viola's twin brother, Sebastian (James Kirk), is supposed to enter Illyria as a new student, and since he is instead going to a contest in London with his fledgling band, Sebastian asks Viola to cover for him by telling the school that he is sick and each of their parents (who are divorced) thinks that he is staying with the other.

Viola instead decides to pass herself off as Sebastian and join the boys' soccer team at Illyria. She hopes to beat the Cornwall team and humiliate her cocky and sexist goalie ex-boyfriend, Justin (Robert Hoffman) who plays for the rival team. With the help of her stylist friend Paul and her girlfriends, Viola becomes the quirky "Sebastian".

At Illyria, Viola's roommate is Duke Orsino (Channing Tatum), a good-looking striker on the soccer team. Tryouts see Viola assigned to second string, much to her dismay. Meanwhile, "Sebastian's" lab partner, Olivia (Laura Ramsey), develops a crush on him, which frustrates Duke, who likes Olivia. In exchange for "Sebastian's" help in getting Olivia's attention, Duke agrees to put in extra soccer practice time with him. Coach Dinklage eventually moves "Sebastian" up to first string, and he is delighted.

"Sebastian" is reminded, by a message from his mother, about the Junior League carnival that the siblings promised to attend. Due to the fact that Duke's mother is also a part of the Junior League, he must go as well. "Sebastian" is forced to switch between herself (Viola) and Sebastian the whole time, while trying to avoid her mother and Monique, Sebastian's ex-girlfriend, so that she is not discovered as impersonating her brother. Viola is trying to run around and do both her and her brother's jobs at the carnival. Duke misses his chance with Olivia when her shift is up at the kissing booth. He is not disappointed by her replacement, who turns out to be "Sebastian's" sister, Viola. Duke and Viola meet for the first time and exchange their kiss at the kissing booth, only to be interrupted by Viola's ex-boyfriend, Justin. Duke and Justin get into a fight and decide they will finish the battle on the soccer field. Duke realizes he might be crushing not only on Olivia, but on Viola as well.

Olivia goes on a date with Duke to make "Sebastian" jealous, remaining far more interested in him than in Duke. Encouraged by Viola, she decides to go directly to Sebastian and tell him how she feels.

The plot becomes complicated when the real Sebastian returns from London a day early. When he arrives at Illyria, Olivia runs up and kisses him. Duke, seeing this, believes his roommate has betrayed him and after arguing with "Sebastian" kicks him out. Viola stays in Eunice's room and oversleeps, causing the real Sebastian to wind up on the field playing in what should be his sister's spot in the next day's much-anticipated game against Cornwall. Principal Gold (David Cross), who has been told of Viola's impersonating Sebastian by two students, Monique and Malcolm, halts the game and informs the crowd that Sebastian is a girl. The real Sebastian being present instead, he proves himself to be male by pulling down his shorts and exposing his genitals off-screen. At half-time, Viola explains the situation to Sebastian and they switch places again.

Later on in the game Viola explains that she has been impersonating her brother, finally convincing Duke and everyone else by showing them her breasts (again, off screen). The coach agrees to let Viola keep playing anyway, sternly informing the Cornwall coach that Illyria doesn't discriminate based on gender and he calls out the coach for his sexist ways. Illyria wins the game on a penalty kick when Viola scores a goal (after a save and then pass from Duke), finally humiliating Justin and the rest of the Cornwall boys, justin cries.

Everyone at Illyria celebrates their victory over Cornwall, except for Duke who is hurt at Viola's deception. She invites Duke to her debutante ball, but she leaves as he doesnt show. Whilst in the garden, Duke turns up and they head to the debutante ball, where they are introduced, come on stage, and kiss. Monique and Justin come on stage together. At the end of the film, Viola and Duke are shown playing on the soccer team of Illyria a year later, both on the first string. They are both then seen laughing in practice, and the film ends.

Cast

Amanda Bynes as Viola/Sebastian Hastings
Channing Tatum as Duke Orsino
Laura Ramsey as Olivia Lennox
James Kirk as Sebastian Hastings
David Cross as Principal Horatio Gold
Vinnie Jones as Coach Dinklage
Alex Breckenridge as Monique Valentine
John Pyper-Ferguson as Roger
Julie Hagerty as Daphne
Lynda Boyd as Cheryl
Robert Hoffman as Justin Drayton
Jonathan Sadowski as Paul Antonio
Amanda Crew as Kia
Jessica Lucas as Yvonne
James Snyder as Malcolm Feste
Robert Torti as Coach Pistonek
Brandon Jay McLaren as Toby
Clifton MaCabe Murray as Andrew
Emily Perkins as Eunice Bates
Robert Capron as Himself

Reception

Box office

The film opened at #4 at the North American box office making $10.7 million USD in its opening weekend. Its budget was approximately $20,000,000. She's the Man grossed a total of $33,741,133 domestic with a total gross of $57,194,667 worldwide.

Critical response

She's the Man has received mixed reviews. Review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes gives a rating of 44% based reviews from 110 critics, with an average score of 5 out of 10. The critical consensus is: "Shakespeare's wit gets lost in translation with She's the Man's broad slapstick, predictable jokes, and unconvincing plotline." Metacritic, which assigns a weighted mean rating out of 100 reviews from film critics, the film has a rating score of 45% based on 28 reviews.