It's A Boy Girl Thing

Starring: Samaire Armstrong, Kevin Zegers, Emily Hampshire
Director: Nick Hurran
Certificate:
Being interested in the differences, and similarities, between gender, I thought this film might offer some insight. I thought, imaginatively tackled, this could be a really interesting subject matter. Needless to say there was no imagination, and no insight.

From the start the film went the way of the clumsy, obvious, and stupid.

The gender issue - well not really dealt with. The boy was working class, with slobs as parents, interested only in girls, heavy rock, and sport. The girl read Shakespeare and listened to Elton John (!!!), her parents were upper middle class - father a wimp, mother a snob. The strange thing is - they lived next door to each other in near identical houses, and went to the same school. Maybe because this is America, that can happen. Or maybe it was becasue the plot required these impossible contradictory things to be true.

Ostensibly about the differences in gender, it turned out to be about class; about the opportunities offered by being from a bettter class, eg, being able to go to one of the best Colleges, and not just because you're good at football.

Both seemed quite happy in each other's bodies, except that the boy barfed when he thought about having sex with another boy, even though he was a girl. I think I'd be at least a little interested in how it feels from the other side. The boy also took to dressing as a girl better than you would expect. He immediately tried to put a bra on - obviously for an easy laugh as he said he had trouble getting them off let alone getting one on. But after that - to annoy the girl (in his body) he went to school dressed as a 'slut', had no trouble with heels, or make-up, and seemed comfortable in short skirts.

My contention here is that they would want to continue to dress in a style they were used to. She would want to wear skirts if that's what she liked to wear as a girl, and probably would at home to be comfortable, and he wouldn't(unless he was a closet transvestite - I assumed he wasn't).

Imagine the amusing scenes you could have with that idea. I think so anyway.

So - the film was confused, unimaginative, incoherent, predictable, and boring. I do not recommend wasting your time with it.