# She's All That (1999)

### reviewed by
Harvey S. Karten

    SHE'S ALL THAT

Reviewed by Harvey Karten, Ph.D. Miramax Films Director: Robert Iscove Writer: Lee Fleming Cast: Freddie Prinze Jr., Chris Owen, Rachael Leigh Cook, Kieran Culkin, Dean Sampson, Clea Du Vall, Dule Hill, Lil' Kim, Jarrett Lennon, Anna Paquin, Kevin Pollak

You can bet that the consensus of critics on this one will be that "She's All That" has its moments of hilarity and charm but that at base it's as formulaic as a can of Gerber's baby food. Given the amount of money that Hollywood throws at its writers and directors for plots that will generate lines at the box office, why should this be so? Could it be that the public actually prefers the a+b=c predictability found so often in each genre? Absolutely, according to a new book by Neil Gabler called "Life the Movie." Gabler argues early on that "entertainment is constantly searching for a combination of elements that has predictably aroused a given response in the past, on the assumption that the same combination will more than likely arouse the same response again." Maybe this explains the often-held notion that critics are different from normal people. Professional reviewers tend to prefer art, which is thought of as inventional (creative), while entertainment is considered conventional (formulaic). Whether you're a authority on the movies and consider yourself a person of uncommon taste or more the hang-loose kind of guy who just wants to have fun, you'll find "She's All That" mildly diverting while you'll not likely be shocked by anything resembling a surprise or a plot twist.

Like other movies about high-school kids (Steve Rash's 1987 "Can't Buy Me Love" about a nerdy kid who pays a senior heartthrob $1,000 to pose as his girlfriend; Jim Gillespie's "I Know What You Did Last Summer" about a group of teens who accidentally run down a pedestrian and throw his body into the sea), "She's All That" stars attractive people who are years older than the characters they portray. Chief among these is Freddie Prinze, Jr., now 23 years old, in the role of a graduating senior who--like Professor Henry Higgins of G.B. Shaw's "Pygmalion"--makes a bet that he can turn a dorky female into a woman of class. It's a fascinating theme, so much so that it has been played in various versions since the Greeks uncovered it a couple of millennia back. That its conclusion is a forgone conclusion is unimportant: after all its predictably did not hurt its appeal in America's greatest Broadway musical, "My Fair Lady." We are entertained or not by how much fun we have watching its principal head toward his goal, and for the most part we're satisfied that director Robert Iscove brings his cast occasionally into high gear with the material that writer R. Lee Fleming Jr. has given him.

What Zack Siler (Freddie Prinze, Jr.), Laney Boggs (Rachael Leigh Cook), Dean Sampson (Paul Walker) and Taylor Vaughan (Jodi Lyn O'Keefe) do supply is a quartet of good, solid bodies and clearly differentiated personalities. The plot, which probably bores the cast as much as it is irrelevant to us, consists of a bet that Zack's buddy Dean makes that Zack cannot transform a dorky girl into a prom queen. Zack fixes his eye on Laney, an introverted senior who spends her free time painting in the basement of her comfortable Southern California home and prepares to work his wiles. Zack's initial manipulation is to ask Laney whether she wears her glasses all the time. Now a true feminist would see red through her black-framed spectacles, but Laney--who will not wear contact lenses--promptly removes them and never looks back, while a classmate gives her a thorough makeover. In a single session she is transformed into a looker ready to turn heads. But this is fantasy. Like Audrey Hepburn in "My Fair Lady," Laney looks darn good right from the first, her makeover hardly likely to change her wallflower personality.

The best scene, surprisingly, revolves around Laney's dad, who is called Dr. Pool (Kevin Pollak) because his trade is the renovation of the Southern Cal. natatoria. The sort of understanding fellow that everyone would love to have as a papa, he puts only the mildest of pressures on his daughter to get her out of her shell and while watching Jeopardy comes out with the best lines in the movie. For example, when the question deals with who printed the most famous Bible ever, he responds, "Hewlett Packard" (the answer is Gutenberg) and he confidently replies "Paris, France" when the answer to a query is "New Orleans, Louisiana."

This is quite a high school, the sort of place one hates to leave, so that it's no wonder that the kids are more anxious than gratified to realize that in a few weeks they'll be out in the real world. Everyone is attractive, each group has talents of a professional caliber. The campus d.j. (Usher Raymond) supplies patter to the halls, imparting new fun to changing classes, while he supplies a bevy of recorded songs to the senior prom calculated to get the kids on their feet. The title comes from a rap song delivered with virtuoso zeal by a trio of students. The movie is hardly an Oscar contender but is fast-moving with live-wire dialogue spoken by articulate kids.

    Rated PG-13.  Running Time: 95 minutes.  (C) 1999
    Harvey Karten

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