Sydney White

I rented Sydney White because I think Amanda Bynes is just adorable. What a Girl Wants was a  cute little movie and I liked She's the Man. Amanda Bynes makes the movies - she's cute, funny, not afraid to dress like a boy or fall down - very Lucille Ball. Sydney White was a disappointment, especially after seeing She's the Man, which was really very goofy and funny. 

Sydney White is a retelling of Snow White, with Amanda Bynes starting her first year of college and finding herself facing the "evil witch" aka head of the big time sorority and crushing on the handsome prince aka the fraternity boy next door. Sydney ends up at The Vortex becoming the "Snow White" and taking care of the resident outcasts (the seven dorks), and of course ends up making changes all over campus, true fairy tale style.

It's a cute idea, it just falls flat. I'm not sure if it's the directing, the script, the fact that Bynes seems almost manic in her humor, or that she seems a little too fake-baked to be appealing. I don't know, I just know that I was disappointed. (One thing that didn't disappoint me was the scene where Sydney is shaving her legs at the sink and one of her friendly dorks walks in. It's a shot of her oh-so-very long legs and wow. She's got legs and she knows how to use them. (Have I mentioned before that I am very much a leg person?) It feels slightly wrong to have that kind of reaction to someone 13 years or so my junior. It makes me feel like a dirty old lady, but seriously, she's become kind of a hottie. But I digress...)

Sydney White - it's not quite a fairy tale but you can't have everything I guess. 

Rating: 3 1/2 Purrs - it would be more if the movie had seemed less forced and contrived. I can accept rom-coms to be that way but this seemed stilted rather than fantasy.