After a girl's football team is scrapped she decides to take matters into her own hands by impersonating her brother in order to play in an important match.
When her brother "Sebastian" decides to ditch his brand new school for a few weeks while playing music with his band in London, his sister "Viola" decides to prove a point to her sexist soccer coach and poses as her older brother to play in a vital game against her own school.
Along the way she gets herself into some fairly major pickles. Not only does she fall in love with her room-mate "Duke", but also has to fend off the rather unwanted advances of her lab partner "Olivia", who finds "Sebastian" the perfect man. "Viola" also has to try and dodge the real girlfriend of her brother and also her own Ex-Boyfriend "Justin" who seems to take great offense at the fact that the girl he thinks is still his girlfriend seems to be falling for his mortal enemy "Duke".
If that is not enough to make your head hurt, "Viola" still has to live life as a boy and also learn how to play soccer like one too. If she can wrap all of these things together, she may just live happily ever after...
It was difficult to know what to expect from this film, but despite early doubts it does turn out quite well. The cast of well known and not so well known actors gels well together, and although the script is lacking in places, it turns out to be quite a decent film.
Amanda Bynes takes the lead role in just her fourth major film, having spent most of her career on American TV, but does a decent job in the end, taking on the roles of both "Viola" and "Sebastian". She is not really challenged in this role, but does bring a fair bit of comedic value to this film, especially with the continual lapses of her "deep" voice. It would be interesting to see this actress in a more serious role as she may well surprise.
Rising superstar Channing Tatum has shown that he can do well in a number of different genres, but in this one, was still very much considered a one trick "pretty boy" actor. He is not really challenged in the role of "Duke", but does show a nice sensitive side that would serve him well later on in life. He does well as the jock in this film, trying his utmost not to show his sensitive side, but giving into it occasionally and giving the audience somebody to root for.
Laura Ramsey does a decent job in the role of the love struck "Olivia", hopelessly infatuated with her new lab partner "Sebastian" and almost completely ignorant of the fixation which "Duke" has for her. Her role is not massively challenging, but she does well and makes the film a lot more enjoyable than it could have been. Stand up comedian David Cross brings a lot of laughs to the screen in his role as the "cool" principal Gold. His contribution alone is worth the admission fee.
Probably the highlight of the film is Welsh acting legend "Vinnie Jones", who goes back to what he does best as a soccer coach in his role as "Coach Dinklage". He rants and he rages, but with a lot fewer of the four letter utterances which we are used to from this Hollywood hard-man. He does not have the biggest role in this one, but I feel would have benefited the film a lot more had he played more of a part.
Julie Haggarty does well as "Daphne", the demanding mother of "Viola", while James Kirk does a decent enough job as the real "Sebastian". This film was never going to win any awards and in many places could be described as predictable, but it has a cute story and some very decent laughs stemming from many and varied uncomfortable situations. This one is worth a watch, but don't expect any Oscar challenging performances.
5/10
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