Film Review: Whatever It Takes (2000)

In late 1990s and early 2000 it was fashionable for Hollywood to make teen comedies loosely based on Shakespeare’s plays. When inspiration or Shakespeare’s opus ran out, alternative came in form of other classic plays. An example can be found in Whatever It Takes, 2000 film directed by David Raynr, based on Cyrano de Berguerac, famous drama by French author Edmond de Rostand.

The plot revolves around Ryan Woodman (played by Shawn Ryan), geekish high school student who dreams about Ashley Grant (played by Jodi Lyn O’Keefe), the most beautiful and most popular girl in the school. She is, however, beyond his reach, mostly due to bad reputation Ryan has created by hanging out with geeks. So, Ryan is more than willing to listen to Chris Campbell (played by James Franco), Ashley’s cousin who says that he can help him winning her heart. In exchange Ryan has to return the favour and help Chris win heart of his best friend Maggie Carter (played by Marla Sokoloff) who, despite also being a geek, happens to be among the prettiest girls in the school. Plan works and Ryan starts dating Ashley, while Chris successfully seduces Maggie. However, when he sees Ashley up close, Ryan realises that she is far from the idealised vision he had. Instead, he begins to realise that he always had feelings for Maggie and becomes quite unhappy with her relationship with Chris.

Idea to have contemporary comedy based on classic tragedy wasn’t bad per se and it could have resulted with a least a decent film, like in the case of Roxanne. Unfortunately, scriptwriter Mark Schwann decided to needlessly complicate matters by having four instead of three major characters. But the worst problem for Whatever It Takes came due to casting which, according to increasingly annoying Hollywood formula, puts extraordinary attractive actors and actresses in the roles of presumably ordinary teenagers. So, Schwann and director Raynr would like us to believe that a teenager with raging hormones would spend a lot of time with someone looking like Marla Sokoloff and not think about her in any ways other than friendship. And, to make things even worse, Maggie and Ashley are depicted as idiots who are easily manipulated by two teenage males. At the end, Ashley’s character must be portrayed as mentally ill simply because protagonist must find a reason not to do with her what almost any other teenage male would do in his place. All those questions are left unanswered in this insultingly bad film that borrows all kinds of cliches for much better films that covered the same subjects. While there is one brief lucid moment in which audience can hear “Play That Funky Music White Boy” being played with accordion, it isn’t enough to justify spending hour and half of someone’s life on something below Hollywood standards of mediocrity.

RATING: 2/10 (-)

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