THE AISLE SEAT - "SHE'S ALL THAT"
by Mike McGranaghan
Teen movies have made a big comeback. From the fright flicks like Scream and The Faculty, to the earnest coming-of-age dramas like Varsity Blues, to the graduation comedies like Can't Hardly Wait. The newest member of the pack is She's All That, an attempt to update the prom queen romances like Pretty in Pink. Although it's been about 12 years since I was in high school, I still love teen movies. I always have. In fact, I once wrote a major college term paper on them. For some odd reason, I've never lost touch with my adolescence. The best of these movies affect me as much now as they did then. She's All That, however, didn't affect me at all. As someone who's absorbed probably every teen movie of the last 20 years, I can tell you with some confidence that this one doesn't measure up.
Freddie Prinze, Jr. (I Still Know What You Did Last Summer) stars as Zack, the most popular guy in a big California high school. Zack has a hot girlfriend named Taylor (Jodi Lynn O'Keefe from Halloween: H20). She dumps him for a crude, self-obsessed idiot from MTV's "Real World" show (in one of the few clever bits in the picture, this character is obviously inspired by the infamous "Real World"-er Puck). Zack is cruelly mocked by his friends over the dumping, but he insists that he doesn't need Taylor. After all, popularity is just about image. Give me any girl, he says, and I can remake her into a prom queen.
Zack's buddy Dean (Paul Walker, also in Varsity Blues) takes him up on the offer. The guinea pig Dean chooses is Laney (Rachael Leigh Cook), a geeky, introverted would-be artist with big glasses and bad hair. Zack begins coming on to Laney, making believe he is attracted to her. He convinces her to lose the glasses and wear trendier clothes. She, meanwhile, is suspicious of her newfound popularity, but goes along with it anyhow. As the story progresses, Zack discovers that Laney is actually a beautiful, intelligent girl and he falls in love with her for real and...yadda yadda yadda.
Here's problem #1 with She's All That: The plot is way too familiar. If you've seen Pretty Woman or Pretty in Pink or any other movie with the word "pretty" in it, then you've already seen this movie (at one point, Laney even says she feels like Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman "but without the hooker part"). Every single plot occurance is ripped right out of some other film. This is merely the latest variation on the old "it's what's inside that counts" fable. Funny how these movies always require the heroine to display visible beauty before anyone even notices inner beauty.
This leads to problem #2: They picked the wrong girl. I'm not busting on Rachael Leigh Cook (an actress perhaps best known for the anti-drug commercial in which she smashes up a kitchen with a frying pan). Cook is an interesting young actress who projects a natural intelligence. However, she's too cute. Of course she can be turned into someone popular. If I'd had a girlfriend who looked like Laney in high school, I'd have been a very happy guy. Although the movie tries to compensate for her obvious beauty with dialogue ("Fat I can work with," Zack says in protest when Laney is chosen, "but weird is too much."), the fact remains that choosing Laney was too easy. A smarter, more stinging commentary about the nature of popularity could have been made by choosing a girl who was overweight, or had some kind of disability, or was downright ugly. These things unfairly turn real kids into outcasts every day. Wouldn't it have been more interesting to tackle this head-on? This movie plays it way too safe.
And problem #3 is that it all happens too quick. One minute, Zack's friends are making fun of Laney. Then everyone goes to the beach and Laney proves to look pretty good in a bathing suit. Suddenly, she's popular. I know teens can be fickle, but this story needed more depth and insight into its subject matter. It is content to just hit familiar story beats when it should really be thinking about the nature of its message.
What I did like about She's All That were the performances. A lot of talented young actors are on board here. I have no doubt we'll be seeing more of this cast (in better projects I hope). The best character is the annoying MTV jerk, played by Matthew Lillard of the first Scream. His screen time is limited, but he's very funny, especially when he decides to treat a houseful of partygoers to a display of his dancing moves. I really wish the by-the-numbers plot had not let down the performers so much.
The temptation is to say that She's All That is not aimed at me; it is aimed at an audience of kids aged 13-17 (perhaps they will be more amused by the scene where a kid is forced to eat his own pubic hair than I was). I think it's wrong to dismiss it through demographics, though. The best films of the genre play to audience members of all ages. Last summer, I gave a very good review to Can't Hardly Wait. That wasn't aimed at me, either, but I identified with the story and characters. It had wit, originality, and a smart point of view - things that She's All That can't be bothered to try finding.
(
out of four)
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