She’s All That
If you couldn’t figure it out from the preview, this is Pygmalion (My Fair Lady) for the Dawson’s Creek set. It is amazing that they can swipe a classic tale like that and still add nothing but derivative tack-on flava to it. I don’t want to sound like an old fuddy duddy, but they just don’t make teen movies like they used to. On the ride home, my companion and I made endless comparisons to today’s neo-brat-pack and that of our own high school years. Everyone in this stable of actors (Cruel Intentions, I Know What I’m Going To Do Next Summer, Simply Irresistible) is good looking (with no Anthony Michael Hall or Molly Ringwald for balance) and almost all of them are from TV, but none of them so far have any kind of natural chemistry together. They look good, they act fine, they just don’t snap, crackle, or pop, and I’d like to say that is all that is missing, but it’s not. Can’t Hardly Wait is a notable exception, and I want to make it clear that I am *not* lumping that film in with all these WB starlets’ offerings.
I had to pop in The Breakfast Club when I got home just to make sure my memory wasn’t playing tricks on me. It wasn’t. She’s All That implied all these events and developments without showing us any of them. Maybe its target audience, having seen all my generation’s movies, is thinking, “yeah, yeah, we know she resists being his friend for a while but gradually grows to enjoy his company, you don’t have to show us.” They omit so much of the delightful tension in a slow-to-grow-to-like-each-other relationship that the first 3rd of the movie feels choppy and fake and even a little bad. It’s a shame, too. A glimmer of potential was snuffed out by the leaps and bounds to get past the segments of interesting tension and instead linger on a barfing bitch’s and a pube-prankster’s come-uppances.
She’s All That does have some very appealing qualities - a series of Real World amusements, a great dance number (hinted at in the preview but totally fun in the movie, who cares what a non-sequitur it is! Funk Soul Brotha!), some amusing flashback and dream sequences, but the rest of the movie is just pleasant, diverting fluff. Little character development, huge leaps in plot - mortal enemies to bantering old buds in a space of minutes - and some genuinely unoriginal plot trimming make She’s All That little more than a nice alternative to icing down my foot and watching cable. It’s innocuous. They just don’t make teen movies like John Hughes used to. They make them like he makes movies now. Shudder!
Our star, Rachael Leigh Cook, is, I believe, the one millionth “ugly duckling” made over into a total unapproachable hottie since the dawn of time. When are they going to cast actual ducks as the duckling - Molly Ringwald was quite an object of scorn in our time, but at least she wasn’t this weird plasticene thing like Denise Richards (Wild Things) and we could believe that someone might actually *be* like her. Tell me why the ugly duckling always has glasses, and always has to lose the glasses to be a babe? My former coworker was a total babe and she more clunky glasses but they just made her look cool (only the truly beautiful can get away with Lisa Loeb spectacles). And I find it difficult to believe that someone as shunned and freaky as Cook would have the immediate body-confidence to be so utterly glamorous. Is it me alone, or do these kids look more sophisticated and adult than me? Is it the breasts? Dammit, I’m an adult - I’m a homeowner! I wanna look like that in that fabulous gown!
Freddie Prinze Jr. is cast in his second (after I Still Know…) relatively layered role as a guy who could go either way, be a total bastard or be a total prince, and I for one am looking forward to seeing someone finally cast him in a really good movie. Most of the other roles are too shallow for anyone to do anything new - the evil bitch prom queen, the date-rape-prone jock, the fat nerdy best friend, the Oscar Winning little sister - huh? Was that Anna Paquin? Yes, it was. Looking very Ally Sheedy, I might add. Some of the acting looked like it was only held in check by the tepid screenplay, possibly the worst crime of all.
Take the nice, blue collar single dad from Pretty in Pink, add a charm-free Ducky/Geek, the viciousness of Valley Girl superficiality, the general wager from Pygmalion, and add in Matthew Lillard (Scream) as a very amusing Real World reject lost in his own fame, a few genuinely bright moments, and you have this.
It’s not bad, it’s even worth seeing, but I just don’t think the studios need to be compensated for it. From what I hear, it’s 1000 times better than Varsity Blues (only appealing because I could look for people and locations I know) so at least spend your money wisely.
MPAA Rating PG-13
Release date 1/29/99
Time in minutes 95
Director Robert Iscove
Studio Miramax
