by erin thursby scopes1925@msn.com
B- Rated PG13 90 min
Amanda Bynes has a charm that can save most scripts, and she uses it well in the modern day tale of ‘Snow White’ called Sydney White. While the movie might be a wee bit gimmicky and somewhat clichéd, it has a good heart and good intentions.
The movie opens with Sydney (Bynes) on one of her dad’s construction sites. John Schneider plays his dad role with warm understanding. We get to see how Sydney grew up with her dad and his workers. Sydney White is leaving to go off to college at Southern Atlantic University, where she’ll be pledging to her deceased mom’s sorority. It means a lot to Sydney to get into the sorority because she feels that it’s a way to connect with her mom.
But getting into the house isn’t easy, since Rachel (Sara Paxton), student body president and head of the sorority, hates Sydney almost immediately. Rachel is concerned with her standing on the college “Hot or Not” website, which declares her to be the fairest of them all. She fits the easily recognized “evil queen” role, in which power and looking good are the most important things.
Rachel’s also upset because Sydney has caught the eye of Tyler “Handsome” Prince, an ex-boyfriend of Rachel’s. After making pledging as difficult as possible, she attempts to humiliate Sydney, banishing her from the sorority at the most public moment possible.
Sydney ends up bunking with seven dorks (not dwarves) in a campus house called The Vortex. The house is a place for the displaced, and since it isn’t a privileged Greek frat house or sorority, parts of the walls periodically catch fire and the plumbing is awful. One thing that keeps the movie from being clichéd is the utter strangeness of the seven dorks, whom Sydney befriends.
Sydney decides to fight “Greek oppression” and bands her dorks together to run for student council. Meanwhile, the romance between Tyler Prince and Sydney continues to grow. Prince even enlists the pledges from his Greek house to serenade Sydney in four-part harmony.
If you’re at all familiar with the story of Snow White, in particular the Disney version, it won’t be hard to draw parallels. Each dork represents one of the seven dwarves; see if you can match the dork to the dwarf by the end of the movie! Of the seven dorks, the one that was meant to represent Grumpy was my favorite. Danny Strong plays Gurkin, a dedicated blogger, fighting the power with online anger. There was something unique to love about each dork.
I liked Sydney’s quirks, her tomboyishness, her minor hammer obsession and her trunk full of vintage comic books. Her inspirational speech to her seven dorky friends involves a metaphor regarding an obscure Avengers comic.
Sydney eventually runs for student council president herself, rallying all the school misfits and so-called losers in a coup to wrest power from the Greeks.
The Snow White gimmick and the charm of Amanda Bynes is enough to make this movie passable, and it’s a great film to take a younger teen to. Those who will like the movie most will be girls in the nine to sixteen-year-old range. Older and more cynical girls might roll their eyes at this movie, and that’s fine, they’re meant to. Fairy tales, like most comedy movies, have a formula that allows for a happy ending. It’s not a great movie, but it does have its appeal. It’s meant to be accepted by a family audience- something that’s family friendly but not so saccharine that mom and dad go into a sugar coma.
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EU Critic’s Choice Awards
