She's the Man



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

The film centers on teenager Viola Hastings, who enters her brother's new boarding school, Illyria Prep, in his place while he tries to break into the music scene in London. Viola pretends to be a boy, in order to play with the boys' soccer team after her team gets cut at her school.

Plot
Viola Hastings (Amanda Bynes) is a teen girl who plays for Cornwall's soccer team until the team gets cut. Her dream is to play for the North Carolina Tar Heels. Meanwhile, her twin brother, Sebastian (James Kirk), is supposed to enroll in Illyria, an elite boarding school, but he secretly goes to London with his fledgling band instead. Viola agrees to cover for him and decides to pass herself off as Sebastian, in hopes of joining their boys' team and beating Cornwall to prove their coach and her cocky ex-boyfriend, Justin (Robert Hoffman), wrong. With the help of her stylist friend, Paul (Jonathan Sadowski), she is transformed into "Sebastian" and attends Illyria in his place.

While moving in, she meets her roommate, Duke Orsino (Channing Tatum), an attractive soccer player and Illyria's team captain. During tryouts, Viola fails to impress Coach Dinklage (Vinnie Jones) and is assigned to second string, much to her dismay. Her teammates, including Duke, initially dislike "Sebastian" due to his awkward and strange behavior. However, with help from Paul once again, they begin to accept him into their social circle. "Sebastian" then gets the popular and pretty Olivia (Laura Ramsey) as his lab partner, which frustrates Duke, as he has feelings for her. "Sebastian" agrees to put in a good word for Duke if he promises to train him to be a better soccer player. Coach Dinklage eventually notices "Sebastian's" effort and improvement, thus promoting him to first string.

At the Junior League carnival, where her mother has made her volunteer, Viola works a shift at the kissing booth and shares a kiss with Duke. Duke expresses to "Sebastian" that he might move on from Olivia as he is starting to like Viola now. Viola is delighted as she secretly feels the same way.

Olivia who now has a crush on "Sebastian", asks Duke out on a date in hopes that it will make "Sebastian" jealous. Viola, who is unaware of Olivia's true intentions, is enraged instead because Duke has now abandoned his interest in Viola. When Viola finds out the truth, she encourages Olivia to tell "Sebastian" directly about her feelings.

The situation becomes even more complicated when the real Sebastian returns from London a day early, unbeknownst to Viola. As soon as he arrives at Illyria, Olivia confesses her feelings and kisses him. Duke, seeing this, believes his roommate has betrayed him. When "Sebastian" returns to their room, the two have an argument and Duke kicks him out. Viola oversleeps and misses the first half of the game, while the real Sebastian is mistaken for "Sebastian" and winds up poorly playing his sister's game instead. At half-time, Viola explains the situation to Sebastian and they switch places again.

Duke, still furious at "Sebastian", refuses to cooperate with him on the field. Determined to makes amends with Duke, "Sebastian" explains that he is actually Viola. Illyria wins the game when Viola scores a goal, finally humiliating Justin and the rest of the Cornwall boys.

Everyone at Illyria celebrates their victory over Cornwall, except for Duke who is hurt about Viola's deception. Viola introduces Sebastian and Olivia officially, and they begin dating. Viola and Sebastian's divorced parents also make up, exchanging contact information so as to be better parents towards their children. She invites Duke to her debutante ball, with an invitation delivered by Sebastian, now Duke's roommate. Still hurt, Duke doesn't respond to Viola's invitation, which devastates her. At the ball, Viola is skeptical that Duke will show up; she distracts herself by assisting Olivia, who is being escorted by Sebastian to the ball, and is touched when Paul asks to be her date. Her mother shows up with a dress that will suit Viola's "no ruffles" policy, but Viola decides to go for a walk instead. She runs into Duke outside, who tells her that he has feelings for her, but that he doesn't want there to be any more deception on her part; Viola promises to be honest with him. Later, Monique (Alex Breckenridge) is escorted by Justin, Olivia is escorted by Sebastian, and Viola and Duke enter the stage late, but together, with Viola in her new dress, much to the joy of her mother. Viola and Duke share a kiss before joining the crowd. At the end of the film, Viola and Duke are shown happily playing on Illyria's soccer team together.

Cast

 * Amanda Bynes as Viola Hastings
 * Channing Tatum as Duke Orsino
 * Laura Ramsey as Olivia Lennox
 * James Kirk as Sebastian Hastings
 * Emily Perkins as Eunice Bates, Olivia's nerdy, eccentric friend and Duke's lab partner
 * James Snyder as Malcolm Festes, the school nerd and Sebastian's (Viola's) rival
 * Robert Hoffman as Justin Drayton, Viola's ex-boyfriend and Duke's rival
 * Alex Breckenridge as Monique Valentine, Sebastian's superficial girlfriend
 * Brandon Jay McLaren as Toby, one of Duke's best friends
 * Clifton Murray as Andrew, one of Duke's best friends
 * Jonathan Sadowski as Paul Antonio, one of Viola's best friends and hair stylist
 * Amanda Crew as Kia, one of Viola's best friends
 * Jessica Lucas as Yvonne, one of Viola's best friends
 * David Cross as Principal Horatio Gold
 * Vinnie Jones as Coach Dinklage
 * Julie Hagerty as Daphne Hastings, the mother of Viola and Sebastian
 * John Pyper-Ferguson as Roger Hastings, the father of Viola and Sebastian
 * Lynda Boyd as Cheryl, the debutante ball's hostess
 * Robert Torti as Coach Pistonek
 * Mark Acheson as Groundskeeper

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 $33,687,630 million domestically with a total gross of $57.2 million worldwide.

Critical response
Review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes gave She's the Man a rating of 43%, based on 109 reviews. The critical consensus reads, "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 out of 100 based on 28 reviews, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Audiences surveyed by CinemaScore gave the film a grade "B+" on scale of A to F.

In a 2018 interview with Paper, Bynes admitted that her role in the film had a negative effect on her mental health. "When the movie came out and I saw it, I went into a deep depression for four to six months because I didn't like how I looked when I was a boy," Bynes said. Seeing herself onscreen with short hair, thick eyebrows, and sideburns was "a strange and out of body experience."