Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night gets the teen movie treatment in this tale of boy meets girl dressed as boy. Banned from joining the boys’ soccer team, tomboy Viola (Bynes) poses as her brother Sebastian at his new school. Complications ensue when she falls for Duke (Tatum), but both romance and humour are undercooked in this likeable but lightweight comedy.
It’s a difficult premise to pull off at the best of times, and Bynes’ boyish swagger is faintly embarrassing: the fact that everyone falls for her prank (and no-one mentions the word ‘gay’) makes this more surreal fantasy than sharp teen comedy. The plot holds interest, but that’s more thanks to Shakespeare than the writers of Legally Blonde.