***SPOILERS***
She's All That is a movie for us very early twenty-somethings (and, let's face it, us twenty-something chicks) who want nothing more than to spend our (still a novelty) disposable incomes on the high-school romance movies we enjoyed as kids in the 80s, but given that smart knowing 90s polish we've learned to love. I guess it's also for real teenagers too, many of whom these days seem older than us anyway (does anyone else out there think this?)
It's essentially a high-school My Fair Lady - student president, all-star athlete and smart boy Zack Siler (Freddie Prinze, Jr) is dumped by his uber-Beverly Hills girlfriend, Taylor Vaughan (Jodi Lyn O'Keefe) during their last term of high school. Stung, he declares that she wasn't so special after all ("under all that make-up and attitude, she's just a C-minus GPA") and vows he could take any girl in the school and turn her into the prom queen. His friend Dean, of course, takes him up on the bet, and picks the girl - "scary, inaccessible" Laney Boggs, who stumbles around in the hideous glasses, unflattering long hair, and baggy, paint-spattered clothes that we just know conceal the beautiful eyes, pretty little face, and perfect little body that are de rigeur for the Pygmalion formula. Of course, Zack gets rid of the glasses, the hair and the clothes in a hurry, with the help of his sister Mackenzie, played by Anna Paquin (the little girl who won an Oscar for her performance in The Piano) and, of course, he falls in love with Laney along the way. No element of the formula is missed: the bitchy girl friends, the jock best friend who acts caring and sensitive but just wants to add Laney to his list of conquests, the fat, geeky, but fun friend who saves the day in the end - but no-one goes to a movie like this for plot twists, we go for the fun of the transformation and the security of knowing that our heroes will stumble through all the obstacles in their way and find the true love we knew was waiting for them all along. Formula is fun when it's slickly presented, and this film is basically an extension of the Buffy/Sabrina/Dawson school of TV - teen drama with enough sass and smart lines for the rest of us to enjoy it too. The leads are competent and, unlike many of their TV counterparts, young enough to be believable as teenagers. Rachael Leigh Cook in particular, with her dark, sharp, slender good looks, is reminiscent of the original Fair Lady, Audrey Hepburn. Freddie Prinze, Jr is fine in the 2D character of Zack (the subplot about his college choice, presumably intended to introduce some complexity or conflict into his character, is so thin as to be laughable - I actually did laugh during what I suppose was meant to be the climactic scene of this subplot, where he confronts his father about his future - it's so awful, flat and hollow you wo'n't believe they bothered writing it. The actors seem embarrassed to even say the lines). The soundtrack is fresh and the direction smooth if unexciting. There is a fun set piece at the prom, with the students dancing to Fatboy Slim's Rockafeller Skank. However, the ending is very abrupt: it feels as though ten minutes were left on the cutting room floor, which was a bad decision as the result is choppy and confusing.
There is one moment I really liked, right before what should be their first kiss, where Laney, after delivering a long lecture on life choices, asks Zack why he called over to her house. Looking at her, he frowns and murmurs "I forget" - it's sweet and interesting and seems like a genuine moment. Or maybe it just made me think of Romeo and Juliet on the balcony, where she calls him and then says "I have forgot why I did call thee back", beginning a wonderful dialogue - and "Romeo and Juliet" this movie ain't 8)
It would be nice to see the Pygmalion formula applied to someone who was genuinely hideous and not just a babe wearing clunky glasses, but that's not how the formula works, and when it works as well as in this movie, who cares? Just kick back, switch off your brain, and settle down for one of those satisfying, absorbing, high-school romances we all loved as kids. It's not arty, it's not intellectual, but it's a lot of fun.
(c) Jennifer Mellerick 1999