Just Hear Me Out: ‘She’s The Man’ Is The Perfect Movie, But The Ending Makes No Sense
When it comes to God-tier ’00s movies, you simply don’t get more iconic than She’s The Man.
This movie holds an especially sacred place in my heart because I was the biggest Amanda Bynes fan growing up. As a child raised by Foxtel (humble brag), I spent my formative years watching Nickelodeon nonstop, more specifically sketch shows All That and The Amanda Show. These are the kids’ shows where Bynes got her big break, debuting as one of the most influential voices in children’s comedy. She carved out her own unique style of humour, which to this day is unrivalled imho.
Amanda Bynes is simply so damn funny.
Her talents translated to the big screen, with Bynes eventually starring in movies ranging from What A Girl Wants, to Hairspray, and Sydney White, but she was never funnier than she was in 2006’s She’s The Man. Despite only being moderately successful at the box office when it was released, She’s The Man has become a beloved cult fave in the last decade, often compared to other teen comedy greats like Mean Girls and 10 Things I Hate About You.
This is in a large part due to Bynes’ performance — she is spectacular in it. For the unfamiliar, She’s The Man retells the Shakespearean tale of the Twelfth Night. Bynes plays Viola, a star soccer player who pretends to be her own brother, Sebastian, in order to prove that she can play just as well — if not better — than anyone on her school’s boys’ team. At the same time, Viola is supposed to be preparing for her debutante ball, while the real Sebastian still has a rather needy girlfriend who keeps popping up everywhere.
Things get even more complicated when a love triangle develops between Viola (as her brother), Duke (Channing Tatum), and low-key villain Olivia. Obviously, mayhem ensues.
While the movie’s story is a riot, it’s the dialogue — or, more specifically, how Bynes delivers it — that makes the movie so perfect. From iconic lines like “My favourite’s Gouda,”, “I’m a badass hunky dude!” and “You know it, bruh!”, this film was a cultural reset.
That being said, I recently rewatched and came to a startling discovery: the ending makes absolutely no sense. OK, so towards the end of the film, Viola’s plan comes undone when her actual brother rocks up at school. On the day of the big soccer game against Viola’s ex-school and ex-boyfriend, the real Sebastian is roped into playing on the field, yet absolutely no one clocks that it is a different person.
Despite a rocky start, when Viola came to school rebranded as Sebastian she eventually became a popular student. Sebastian (aka Viola) was well-known to a lot of the other teens at the school, so it defies belief that no one would be confused that Sebastian (aka Viola) all of a sudden looked like a different person.
I know what you’re thinking: Sebastian wears face paint during the game. Does he tho?
He wears heavy face paint at the start of the game, yes.
While anyone with clear vision could see that this wasn’t Bynes, I will cop that from a distance the red paint blurs his features — so he could potentially appear to be Viola.
However, by the time Principal Gold and Malcolm interrupt the game to try to expose Sebastian as being Viola, almost all of the face paint has faded away.
That is very clearly not Viola’s face. Duke is standing less than a metre away from Sebastian, yet doesn’t notice that his roommate of two weeks is now an entirely new person. I know Duke is a wholesome himbo, but let’s give him some credit. Surely when the principalal spoke about identity-swapping, the whole Illyria team would have a good look at Sebastian and think… hmmm, well this person does now have a different face, so he might be on to something.
MAKE IT MAKE SENSE.
Some might argue that maybe as siblings, Viola and Sebastian look similar enough to get mixed up.
This is Viola as Sebastian:
This is the real Sebastian:
NOPE.
The casting is good, don’t get me wrong. They do look quite similar — like how a brother and sister would appear — but they’re still clearly different people.
This is the A Cinderella Story trope all over again: viewers are expected the suspend belief that any face obstruction can disguise a person’s identity, whether it’s coloured face paint or a tiny mask. I don’t think so!
She’s The Man is still the perfect movie, but I can’t help but wonder how much better it would have been if the ending made sense.
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