Sydney White

Overall score:

The new Amanda Bynes vehicle might best be described the way Ford Prefect described Earth: "Mostly Harmless." It's pleasant enough diversion, likely to appeal to the 14-year old girls of all ages for whom it is intended. For the rest of us, it's not painful to sit through, merely tedious.

Bynes portrays Sydney White, a college freshman who was raised by her widower father (John Schneider of "Dukes of Hazzard" and "Smallville" fame). Her mother has been dead for nine years, and Sydney hopes to pledge at her mother's sorority in an attempt to connect with her deceased parent.

From here, the film reveals what it truly is: a bizarre hybrid of Mean Girls and Snow White and the Seven Dwarves. The stuck-up sorority Queen is name Rachel WITCHburn (she even daily checks a website which displays who at the school is "fairest of them all"), the cute guy is named Tyler PRINCE, and Sydney becomes forced to live in a broken down dorm with . . . the seven dorks. I am not making this up. The "dorks" are, of course, geeky, social misfit gamers and sci-fi nerds. Being a "geek girl" herself, Sydney immediately bonds with the dorks, but of course saves all of her romantic feelings for the bland, cardboard "Prince Charming", though she seems far more compatible with Lenny (Jack Carpenter), one of the dorks.

The plot slavishly follows the conventions of Snow White, updating them to modern times. How you feel about the film will be largely dictated by whether you find these conceits clever or merely predictable. For myself, I found that they came very close to bordering on clever a few times (particularly the use of the trademark "High Ho"), but don't really seem like the basis for an entire movie.

As for the comparison to Mean Girls: Screenwriter Chad Creasey is no Tina Fey. The biting wit, insightful social satire, and sociological signifigance are missing, leaving us with an "Oh my gosh, he's so totally cute, but why is he with the snotty girl instead of the nice girl who's like me . . . oh my gosh, maybe this could happen to me, and I'd be, like, totally popular and wear cute outfits but I could, like, still be me, and all the geeky guys who I don't want to date can find geeky girls and we'll all be, like, totally happy" movie. The contribution of director Jorl Nussbaum is barely worth mentioning. His "point and shoot" style is devoid of any artistry or craftsmanship . . . but that's not really the point of a movie like this, is it?

Bynes is charismatic enough, and the dorks are likable, but the rest of the cast is fairly wooden. But it doesn't really matter, as this is a complete star vehicle, and Bynes is almost never off-screen.

Clearly, I was not part of the target audience for Sydney White, and I must admit that the young girls present at the screening I saw seemed to enjoy it immensely. It's innocuous, and disposable, and, well, harmless. But I couldn't help but feel that a truly good genre film transcends the narrow, artistically stifling notion of "target audience." I wasn't part of the target audience for Mean Girls, but I loved that film. Sydney White kept me awake. Barely.

Sydney White is rated PG-13 for mild sexual references (actually pretty tame for what we've come to suspect form this type of movie).

Reviwed by Paul Gibbs, September 14, 2007

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Written by Paul Gibbs on September 17th, 2007